The Real Monster
by Shadenight123
Summary: Monster. He was Monster. On one side, the happy bright family of the Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage, on the other, Monster. Four years of hell in orphanage, one year in Root, and finally five years in Kumo. Still, will he get over his traumas, or will his traumas bring him to deeper pits of darkness? Naru-Shizuka Chap-26onwards . Sad story. Finished. Dojutsu!
1. Suffering

First Chapter.

**Oh gawd I don't even know why I'm writing this, I should finish a Demilich in Tristain (the final chapter) or at the very least keep going on the other one (the making of a kage) for a while, my muse is the most horrible thing in the damn universe I tell you!**

**This just means I'll do this every now and then until I at least finish the Demilich one; don't think this is going to get updated any time soon though…and yeah, my muse really gets me with the drama. I repeatedly hit her with a spoon after what evil plot she pushed into my head. This story is always Naruto verse, but it's more, damn more, dramatic.**

The blond haired young boy of four knew that his name was monster. It was either that or demon. Actually, considering the damp, cold and smelly place he was in at the moment, he was sure this was the lair of a demon: him. The elderly lady had told him that he was a worthless monster, who simply had to stay put and get kicked and punched by the other boys and even the girls of the orphanage, they slept in beds, because they were humans. He was a monster, and thus he had to sleep in the cellar. It wasn't that bad, at least if he was thirsty he'd just have to lick some water off the walls, sure, it was freezing. Sure, he had to give his scraps of food to the mice: it was that or his fingers you know. He was just lucky he was able to mend his bones by sleeping all night, and more than sleeping he couldn't do anything else in there. Recently the headmistress had decided to directly shackle him with a chain in a corner of the cellar, because he had learnt how to actually walk, and not crawl on the ground. He had watched a mouse stand on his two legs, and had tried to imitate him, after all, the mice were his only, well friend would be farfetched, but still, they were his only willing living beings that lived with him. Furthermore they didn't even hit him, or yell things at him.

He shivered, not for the cold, never for the cold, he was used to that, but because of the songs outside. He recognized it, it was the same song that was sung for the festivity of the defeat of the Kyuubi, the nine tailed beast, the monster who had attacked the village the same night he was born. That was what the story told, he had been born and then puff, the Kyuubi had attacked, so it was his fault. He didn't know what to think of it, though if he actually had done that, he wasn't sure he could repeat the feat, he had tried, whispering the name of that beast for a while, thinking that if it ever attacked again, at least he'd have a chance at a normal life, and maybe, maybe, they'd give the fault to someone else born on that day.

He shook his head, it was an evil thought, giving the fault to others. Everything was always his fault after all, he was sure of that, the headmistress had told him that personally. He had one day of happiness though, it was the day the Hokage, known as Minato Namikaze, came to visit the orphanage, on that day he was first severely beaten in the morning, then dressed, and he was told that he was to be a good boy and say he was happy there then he'd be given a piece of cake by the end of the day. The piece was always small, less than a thumb wide and an index long, but it was still cake. He had to be quick though, because once the Hokage left he was undressed of all but the bare essential, thrown in the cellars again, and he had to grab the flying piece of cake before any mouse could get to it. Sure, they liked it too, but they didn't share like he did!

They had told him that the Hokage had defeated the Demon once, and that, had he not been good and silent, he would kill him too, after all, to defeat the demon, the third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sacrificed himself in the fight. Still, he was glad for the Hokage's visits, because every now and then he'd come with some candy, not that he'd get any, as the headmistress would always grab it before anyone, and then *share* it at dinner, with the rest of the kids.

So, he was shivering and waiting the usual beating.

That's when the cellar's door opened, and the Headmistress came down, a plump lady with bright pink hair, Haruno something. She was really important in the council, and she even said that if she wanted, she could have him killed because he was evil.

"Now, now, Monster…" she spoke with spite, always with spite and anger, "today is going to be special."

He closed his eyes, he knew it, he was going to get beaten, and it was better to keep his hands down, otherwise they'd kill him for defending himself. That's when he heard the chain strangling his neck coming loose, and he looked with surprise at the lady.

"Off you go. Go outside and have fun…now." He slowly crawled into a crouched position, but since he was too slow, the headmistress simply yanked him upwards and with strength held his right arm in a grip. It hurt, but he simply whimpered, if he started crying it would be worst. His legs were too short to actually keep up the fast walk of the Headmistress, so he was simply yanked every now and then with strong pulls that hurt a lot.

He was at the door, and could see that outside, there was already a mob forming. He gulped down nervously, looking with a glint of fear at the headmistress' face, who was grinning with a wicked smile. Then, he threw him outside, in the middle of the mob, and closed the door of the orphanage behind her.

He closed his eyes once more. The pain began when something sharp hit him on the back, then kicks, punches, someone slashed at him with something, another one pierced him with a pitchfork maybe, the taste of blood came into his mouth, as he was taken away from the orphanage, and into a back-alley of sorts, to teach him a nice lesson.

On another road, a happy family of three was smiling and looking through the stalls, people stopping to congratulate the Hokage, Minato Namikaze, for his job of protecting them against the beast. On his right stood his beautiful red-haired wife, Kushina Uzumaki Namikaze, and in the middle stood their little princess, Katsumi Namikaze, she had red hair like her mother, but clear blue eyes like her father. She wore a pretty pink kimono, just like her mother's, while Minato was wearing his Hokage's outfit.

His thought for once went to his other son, the one he had failed to protect, and he couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt, as he looked at his wife, who had, her too, a sad smile on her face, hidden to her best ability, for their daughter, Katsumi, Kushina was thinking about the children she had lost that night, years ago.

When the Kyuubi attacked, Minato had to seal his chakra into a new born baby, and, as fate would have it, Kushina had managed to push out both of the twins from her belly, a boy and a girl. He had to choose, and a choice he actually made. Knowing full well how a weakened birthing mother was, and still hoping for grandchildren, he had grabbed the boy, thanking Kami that Kushina had fainted after birth, and wasn't there to watch him. Had he stared into her eyes, at that moment, maybe he wouldn't have done it.

He would have wanted to do it personally, as the Jutsu required would have taken as a toll the life of the user, but Hiruzen had preferred to go there personally, and after knocking him out, had done it himself.

Minato looked at the statue of the third, carved from a marble block and placed straight in the middle of the square of Konoha, and couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt, looking at how the statue held a bundle of cloth in his left hand, and his right hand was placed in the *Tiger* symbol, the one generally used for fire jutsus.

He remembered when he had gone to the council, after having woken up, with the bundle of clothes and the small child that was Naruto, his whisker marks and his blue eyes. He had sat down at his place in the middle of the council, with on his right the civilian council yelling for blood, with the headmistress of the orphanage Haruno Karusa first line, after having lost her youngest son, and on his left the important clan's heads and the Anbu commander, plus Danzo.

"I say we must kill the demon!" Karusa yelled; her fist landing on the wooden table of the council.

"Yeah! She's right!" was the general consensus of all those who had lost a relative, or a business, in the area of the city where the Kyuubi had attacked.

"This is troublesome…you really want to kill a child?" Shikaku Nara muttered.

"Why should we kill him?" Danzo rhetorically questioned, "Let's bring him into the ANBU, there he will be trained, and kept under check: afterwards, he'll become a great resource for the council, and the city."

"He'll become a mindless weapon, you want to say, to be used by who trained him." Hiashi's white pearly eyes looked straight into Danzo, who, half bandaged, didn't seem to give much of a damn.

"I say, let's put this to the vote, I've got a dinner to go to!" Choza Akimichi, muttered, as he had tried for the past hour to eat something, only to find the stares of Inoichi Yamanaka and Shikaku Nara to prevent him from doing anything.

"Fine," Minato finally spoke, "Those who wish to have the boy killed?" his heart cringed inside, but he was a Hokage, he had to do what was best, or the civilians might just as well have him removed.

To his relief, only the civilian side raised their hands, barring them thus from the majority of votes.

"Who wants the child to become a mindless weapon?" this time, nobody raised his hands, well, except Danzo and Homura Mitokado, swiftly followed by Koharu Utatane, the previous team mates of the sandaime.

"Why haven't you voted?" Minato queried the clan's head, in hope for an answer.

"If I might suggest…why not having the child placed in an orphanage, then, if he shows any aptitude, have him trained in ANBU? He'll get around his peers, and then he can become a weapon, while keeping some of his mind." Hiashi's suggestion was a middle ground, but still Minato couldn't help but cringe.

"Anyway, the kid's parents are dead, right?" Shikaku queried, "It would be a drag to get their permission".

"Y-Yes, I took him from the hospital's newborns, from those who would have been sent to the orphanage later on." Minato lied, he had to, he was sure that had he told the truth, that this was his son, he'd end up being taken immediately by Danzo, just to use him as a puppet against him, and, if he wasn't going to, there were always the Iwa ninjas or anyone who'd prefer to try and steal a children of the Hokage from an orphanage rather than from the Hokage's mansion.

He also had to admit, that he was doing this for their other child, and for Kushina, she'd certainly kill him, if she knew what he had done to one of their children, without considering what he would have done to himself too, he'd have to lie to her, he did lie to her: out of the twins, one had died.

"Still, there will be no repercussions on the kid," Minato muttered, he didn't want to use his real name too much, he might get attached…who was he kidding, he already was, he was a father not a lump of rock.

"And he should be treated as a Hero for what he was subjected to, not a demon."

The rest was noise in Minato's remembrance, still, he recalled with dread how some Shinobis and Kunoichis had tried to kill the newborn baby in the crib repeatedly, after he had given the announcement, and thus he had been forced to pass the information that Naruto was the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi on an S-level secret.

He went to visit him once a year and he didn't seem in a bad shape, certainly not too bad for being in an orphanage, and he had given the Headmistress a monthly allowance to care for the child, and the woman had even said that he was the perfect boy, quiet, who ate little, and who took almost no space at all.

"Dad! Can you buy me this!" Katsumi's eyes shined brightly, as she pointed at one of the toy ANBU masks that a stall was selling.

Minato smiled, well, today was her birthday: it wouldn't be a birthday without one more gift.

Returning to the Monster, he had finally been left to crawl in the dirt of the back alley, he was covered in grime and filth, but he was already feeling his bones crack back into place, as the wounds had begun closing up. The more he got wounded the more he healed, and the mobs always hit him hard.

He was just a monster though, so it was obvious, now he'd have to crawl back to the orphanage, sleep out in the small dumpster behind it, and wait the morning to be brought in, to be thrown in the cold water taken directly from the well, to be splashed at him. That was the drill, his drill.

This time, however, it went differently.

A girl, no more than fifteen, was carrying back something big and white, rectangular too, with both her hands. She made a small *eep* sound, seeing him, but Monster said nothing.

He simply stood there looking at her, with long brown hair tied in a ponytail and brown eyes, and said nothing, he was half expecting to be beaten, hard, with that strange white thing, which in truth was merely a take-away ramen carrier, when there were home-deliveries to make.

Ayame had just finished making the deliveries, when she had taken the back alleyway as a shortcut to get back to her father's ramen stand. That's when she found the beaten boy, who stared at her with really sad eyes.

She didn't know what to say, so she simply ran off, she had to get her father's approval first, that she knew.

Monster looked at her darting away, leaving him there, and said nothing, his cold gaze slowly faded away as his eyelids closed, his final thought was that, at least, there wasn't so much humidity in that small street.

Monster woke up with the sun hitting him on the face, but it took him a while before understanding what was going on. He felt something on his chest, something strange, warm even. Maybe he had been taken to the hospital? He had gone there once, only, to be checked and have his blood taken. There he had to give his full name only that time: Naruto. It was all. He had been tempted of using monster, even there, but the headmistress had warned him through his beatings that he had to keep feigning being human, even if he was a monster, to the outside world.

He slowly opened one eye, being very careful of his surroundings: he wasn't in the streets, and he wasn't in the hospital, and certainly he wasn't in the orphanage's bunk beds. He was in a small room, in a pretty blue colored room: there was a drawer, and a dresser, and a chair and even a desk. He stared at those things without saying a word, not knowing what to do, and actually not knowing what to do in the bed of someone else. He knew that he shouldn't trouble people, because he was a monster. So he silently moved the bed sheets out of the way, and slid down, before putting them back as they were, or at least, as he managed to put them. He cringed inside as he was sure he was still going to get punished for not having placed them perfectly as they were before.

Still, that didn't stop him from looking around, he was naked, that much was certain, but then why was there an orange jump suit on the chair, with clean, clean! Underwear? Was that actually a shirt? Still, was that stuff his to take? What if they accused him of being a thief? It was chilly still, being the morning of October Eleventh.

His birthday had just passed, and now he was five. At least, if five was the number that came after four.

He wasn't quite sure about that, but between that and three he preferred the sound of five better.

Monster decided to test his luck, and, worst possible case, he'd have to give them back, still, they did *steal* his clothes from him! Even his dark hue had been replaced with a fair one, did someone wash him? Why would anyone wash a demon? Did he end up in a cultist house? He was going to be sacrificed to some strange god, he knew it! He did his best with the clothing he had, realizing how baggy they actually were didn't matter to him: those were clothes.

Downstairs, Teuchi was serving ramen to the Hokage's wife, a habitual client.

"Itadakimasu! Your ramen is the best Teuchi-san!" as Kushina smiled, her Anbu mask on the back of her head, her green eyes stared at the warm noodle soup with a grin visible on both of them. She happily dug in, as Teuchi already readied another pot, as he was pretty damn sure five servings wouldn't have been enough to satiate the hunger for ramen of the Hokage's wife.

Next to him, his daughter, Ayame, looked fidgety between Teuchi and Kushina, like she wanted to say something, but couldn't.

"What is it Ayame-chan?" Kushina hadn't been in Anbu because she was a dense airhead, the fact she had mistakenly signed for the Anbu corps instead of the Jounin's was just a coincidence, a coincidence she'd have to pay for with the three years of obligatory service.

"Otou-san…" Ayame cringed as she spoke the name looking at her father, who sighed and took the ball.

"We found a kid no more than five yesterday night," Teuchi spoke slowly, "he had been pretty badly roughed up, but was otherwise fine, if we don't consider the mess his clothes, and his body, was."

"I see: where is he now? I might as well bring him to the Uchiha police force to have them question him about who the attacker was," Kushina replied, her mind darkening a bit, who'd hit a five year old child?

Somehow, half of Konoha's citizen sneezed.

"He's upstairs!" Ayame replied, "thank you Kushina-sama!"

"It's Kushina-san for you, Ayame, and Teuchi, make another ten bowls of ramen while I'm speaking with the victim upstairs." As Teuchi nodded, and sighed seeing how the Anbu redhead had managed to devour with ease two pots worthy of Ramen, Kushina moved to follow the brown haired daughter of the ramen stand upstairs of the two story high house, that had on the front the ramen stand, on the back a bigger kitchen, and the rooms above used by the member of the house.

"He was still sleeping in my…kyah!" Ayame gasped, as Kushina, with her years worthy of being a Ninja, swiftly moved the young girl behind her, and looked around, to see…nothing.

"There's…nothing? Ayame-chan?" she queried, puzzled, but as she saw Ayame enter, she was pretty clear that the reason for the gasp was the lack of the boy in question, as the eyes of the girl were actually looking around, surprised in not finding the boy.

"I…I don't know Kushina-sama, he was there, sleeping in the bed!"

"I know…he's still here too, as the only way to exit is through the front door." Kushina made a small smile, as she slowly got down on all fours, and looked with her head under Ayame's bed, her green eyes meeting blue ones. She nearly gasped, as, hadn't she brought Katsumi personally to the Ninja kinder garden, she'd be damn sure she was under the bed. Plus, that was a boy, and not a girl. He had deeply gushed in cheeks, like one who hasn't eaten much in the last few months, his eyes were blue, but also utterly scared of her, like, really scared. He was completely paralyzed in fear, and Kushina had to think something fast, because it was like watching a rabbit ready to die of fear.

Monster was sure this was the end of the line. He knew the mask on the back of the woman's head, it was an Anbu: the headmistress had told him that, if he had been bad, an Anbu would come and make him suffer once and for all. He wouldn't be killed; monsters do not have that mercy: he would just suffer until he'd beg for death, but then he wouldn't get it.

"Hey…" the woman spoke softly, "everything's right, kid. Nobody wants to hurt you anymore."

Monster didn't move. This was the first trick, it worked for the headmistress for a while too, she would tell him that everything was fine, and that he wouldn't get hurt, he'd get brought upstairs, and just when he was about to reach the table with the other kids he'd be taken, hit for some strange reason, and brought back down in the cellar, once it was because of the feet being not perfectly symmetrical, another time because he had given a smile to one of the attendants in the orphanage, once, he remembered, he had just taken a step outside, but the headmistress had told him that it should always be with the left foot, and thus had closed his right foot with the door.

He wasn't going to fall for that.

Kushina pouted for a moment, that wasn't going to work.

"Ayame-chan, would you mind bringing one of my ramen bowls up here?" Ayame nodded, leaving swiftly.

"Hey…how about we talk a little then? You must be hungry, right?" Monster didn't say a single word, still looking at her with scared eyes.

"Oh come on, you're not fun. Well, my name is Kushina, you can call me Kushina-san, okay?" The wife of the Hokage sighed: there was still no reply from the boy, just what had he been beaten with? Maybe he had some brain damage, and that was why he wasn't replying to her most gentle and soothing tone!

"So…I told you my name, how about you tell me yours, it's the polite thing to do, you know?"

Monster cringed: the polite thing to do is to die in a corner, that's what the headmistress said.

"M-monster." He stuttered.

Kushina raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Would you repeat?"

"I'm…Monster." He muttered once more.

"Nonsense, nobody has ever been called *monster*".

"D-Demon?" Monster tried again, maybe he had it all wrong from the beginning, and his name was demon, while his surname was monster.

"…no!" Kushina exclaimed, but mentally cursed herself for that, as the boy simply moved further back. He didn't cry however, he simply moved backwards, and his eyes, they were hardened like those of the adults who knew the world was filled with horrors.

Ayame entered the room with a bowl in her hand, with the ramen, and a pair of chopsticks.

Kushina thanked the girl, and then brought it down on the ground, starting to blow on it in the direction of the scared boy.

Monster knew it was the second trick, food. Still, he was hungry, and he was tired of staying tense down there, maybe he'd manage to get a bite if he was swift enough?

"Come on, if you come out, I'll give you some Ramen."

Monster didn't know the name, but still, he slowly crawled out of the bed, but he was still wary about the woman, and the girl? Ayame was it? Well, he was out now, he was sure hits were going to come out any time soon. Maybe as the red haired woman hands him over the bowl? No, he managed to get it in his hands fine, it was kind of warm.

So it was when he tried to drink it? He didn't know what those strange wooden things were after all, so he supposed they were decoration, as trying to chew on them, except making the girl…make a strange sound in her mouth? Didn't work at all.

Kushina couldn't help but stare: in her gaze there was a mixture of amazement, but also anger. The boy didn't even know what chopsticks were! The more he looked at the boy, the more it resembled her own daughter, Katsumi, she couldn't help but feel a tinge of pain in her heart, when she got back home she'd be sure to hug her own daughter well, double time.

"So…you like it?" Kushina asked the boy, who looked at her perplexed, and hesitant.

"Warm." He muttered back with a nod.

"Well, duh, it's ramen!" Monster looked at her with a puzzled look.

"You never had warm food before?" Monster shook his head.

"So, now you feel like you can tell me your name?" Monster looked at her with uneasiness.

"Mo…"

"No!" Kushina snapped back, "It can't be Monster, Demon, or anything of the sorts! Your name, what your mother calls you!" there, she did it again. The boy started weeping.

Monster had no mother, mother had abandoned him with certainty, he had been brought to the orphanage and left there, because, as the headmistress had told him, his mother couldn't bear to be with a monster as a children.

"Ehi…Ehi…" Kushina hugged the boy, who simply cringed more, "I'm sorry okay? I'm sorry: I didn't mean to yell at you."

After a moment she managed to actually calm the boy down, patting his head gently.

"Good, now, how about you thank Ayame-chan for having helped you, and then you come with Kushina-san to find out what happened?" Naruto looked puzzled, as he stared for a moment at the girl who had *helped him*.

The silence was embarrassing, actually, but, after a brief moment of hesitation, Monster said.

"T-Thank you."

"It…It was nothing." Ayame replied, with a bit of a smile.

"Then hop," Kushina said while grabbing the young boy's hand and pulling him back on his feet.

Naruto cringed, trying to make himself little, during the trip to the Uchiha compound, especially because some of the stares of the people were on him.

Kushina wanted to actually snap out at the people around her, because, being an Anbu, she did have a keen hearing. The murmurs were starting to get on her nerves, and Kami had to help her because she was going to gut the same civilians she should have been protecting!

She stopped in front of the Uchiha compound, as a masked-nin appeared from thin air straight in front of her.

"Kushina-san." The masked figure wasn't more than twelve, maybe thirteen?

"Itachi-kun, would you mind getting your father Fuguka-san, for me?"

"Not a problem." The masked-nin stared for a brief moment towards the small boy next to the Hokage's wife, but said nothing, and disappeared from view.

"Good, now…"

"Kushina-sama! We're going to be late!" Kushina bit her lower lip, looking to the group of Anbu that had appeared just then.

"…listen here, boy." The red haired woman looked at the four year old, "you wait till Fuguka-san gets here and you two." Pointing at the two guards in front of the compound, who stiffened, "keep an eye out for the kid, and tell Fuguka-san that this boy was attacked last night and he'd better take his eyewitness." Then, when both the guards nodded, she kneeled in front of the boy and said, "Now you wait for a man to come here, and then you tell him everything that has happened, got it?"

Monster nodded, he was sure he'd be kicked out the moment she'd be gone, but still, it wouldn't matter much, he did get to put something solid under his teeth.

"Good, when I come back, I'll meet you at Ichiraku's and you'd better come with your real name around."

Monster nodded again. He'd have to find another word as a name, if Demon and Monster were out.

As the red-haired woman left, with four Anbus, Naruto waited for the kick. He was sure it was going to arrive sooner or later, but it didn't. In fact, the two guards simply waited, not caring in the slightest. Sure, they wanted to kick him out for being a monster, but they couldn't: especially because it had been the Hokage's wife to bring him there, and, while they did hate the demon boy, they were Uchiha, not complete idiots.

Monster waited for a while, before seeing a man simply dash in the street and stopping in front of the Uchiha compound:

"The Hyuga heiress! They have kidnapped her!" there, Monster was sure they'd fault him for that too.

The guards outside swiftly entered to warn the others, and, lo and behold, Fuguka-san was the first to have the situation explained by the Hyuga. Monster stood in a corner of the street, waiting, until an explosion far off caught his attention. The Uchiha, and the Hyuga, darted off in that direction.

He, on the other hand, waited.

Then, finally, the kick came. One of the remaining guards saw the monster waiting out of the compound, and nervous for the reason the boy was there, decided to teach him a lesson.

Monster would have smiled, if his bones hadn't been so broken, and he hadn't been so miserable, staying there, once more in a dirty back alley. His orange jumpsuit was torn and thrown aside, covered in blood, his blood.

The Uchiha had done a number on him, must have made him proud to have so thoroughly punished the demon boy, he was going to make sure everyone knew his prowess in defeating such a monster.

Thankfully for the ears of the bar visitors, he never had the chance to, as a Kunai passed through his throat, leaving him on the ground, dead. Naruto's vision was blurred, but he did see a masked ninja grabbing him.

The Headmistress was right once more…the ANBU come for the bad guys, and he was bad, evil, and a demon.

*One Year Later*

"Assassinate the target." The message came crisp into his ear, and Monster nodded mentally. He smiled to the elderly Granny, who had just finished her talk of how he looked like her grandson, and the next moment, the lady was dead and he was no longer there.

"Assassination confirmed." The voice came once more in his ear, what did he expect? That he'd fail killing an old woman?

"Monster, report to Tree." Another voice, more coarse, came through.

"Tree, here Monster, Assassination executed: mother of the civilian counselor of Oto no Kuni completed, Kunai through the neck with symbols of Iwa, assassinated during her stop between villages," The voice came back monotone, without hint of emotion.

"Good, go back to ROOT hideout, wait for orders."

The hazel haired boy, with spiked hair, said nothing, it was the first kill he had done, but it had come easy to him. All that waited for him now was to be covered with seals and taken into custody by Danzo-sama as his personal apprentice. He just had to say that it was what he wanted to the Hokage, and then he'd be a full- fledged ROOT-nin.

He had been given no equipment but a kunai with the Iwa symbol on it, and he was now wearing black cargo pants with a green and brown jacket, his hair had been covered in grime and dirt and had later on been dyed, to make him look someone else. His eyes had been given colored lenses, to make them look brown too, and now he was heading to the hide-out of Root in Oto no Kuni. He liked Root, he was told his name was Monster, so he had been right on that, and he was told that he would no longer be hit by mobs if he obeyed. He had done so, and no mob had no longer hit him, or thrown things at him. He hadn't walked outside the village for over a year though, and even when leaving the fire country, he had done so through a set of hidden underground passages, so no-one would had seen him leave, nor would they see him come back. He was jumping from tree branch to tree branch, when a noise made him stop.

"Yoh! I move like a butterfly and sting like a bee,

This is your sensei, Killer Bee!"

"I don't think using the same word twice counts as a rhyme, sensei!" Monster looked downwards, yep, Ninjas.

The headband marked them as from Kumogakure, apart from a hulking brute with tanned skin, and who was wearing colored shades, there was also a young man with short blond hair and dark eyes. He was wearing a sleeveless black shirt, the always present forehead protector, black elbow-length arm guards, and the red and white Kumogakure shin-guards. There was also a girl, with blond long hair tied in a ponytail, who was wearing a black and purple outfit that made it a sore sight in the middle of the green and brown forest.

The last one was a dark skinned man with white hair, so much that for a moment Monster was starting to think he was an elderly man…just how did you manage to end up with white hair? Did he stress himself out? He had a kind of laid out attitude, though.

"We're in the land of sound, sensei, we shouldn't be too loud." The young blond man spoke, as he closed his eyes.

"If there's anything, I'm sure you'll catch it C,

Since it's sensorial that…that…ya see!" the guy, Killer bee, said, as the blond man pointed to the branch where Monster was.

"Crap," was all he could say, before a damn, literal, lighting fast second afterwards, he got himself a new set of kunais and shurikens…in his chest.

He fell down without as much as a thought, as his consciousness drifted away.

"C! You hit a CHILD!" was the last thing Monster heard, coming from a female and worried voice.

*Five Years later*

Naruto woke up, panting from the nightmare he had been in, where the mob of people hit him with stones and people wanted him to kill other people, and then he was killed by his friends for being useless. He looked at the clock and sighed in relief. He still had time to get to the academy and get his forehead protector.

He dashed downstairs, fist bumping the tanned man that came out of the door on the left of the corridor without much thought, as it was a daily occurrence, the two of them being late. He looked like a mini-tornado, as he made his way through the kitchen and out of the door, after giving a quick hand-wave to Darui, who was, most lazily, drinking tea with ease.

The end of his dash was straight into his class, were a really angry woman stood, in wait, nervously tapping on the floor with her right foot.

"Yugito-oneecha…" Naruto would have wanted to say he was sorry, but the chalks flew into his mouth until he had no more space to even speak.

"SIT Naruto! You're late for the exam!" as Naruto spat out the chalks, and the class laughed its ass off, he managed to make his way to the back row, were a written exam was waiting just for him.

Naruto swiftly managed to get through the majority of it with ease, thanking Kami that Yugito-oneechan was weak to his fabled jutsu, the puppy-eyes of doom, and had most kindly told him, just in general and just because she was thinking to herself, some of the general areas where the quiz would have ended up on.

As he finished, he gave a wide grin at Yugito, who rolled her eyes over and grabbed the tests from the students.

"How do you think it went? Did we pass? Is fate going to…" Shiganori Yugoro was one of Naruto's friend, the only problem being that he was the fate-type of person. Did a rock soar through the sky to hit his head? Fate. Never mind him using *fate* as an excuse to pick-up girls, he stood tall, with raven hair and clear green eyes, and an impeccable white smile.

"Oh, shut your trap." Fujimoto Shoko muttered without as much as trying to keep her cool. Yugoro had asked her out once, and Shoko had stupidly accepted. The next day, Yugoro had all his face as red as red could become, and Shoko had all but decided to make sure no-one ever fell for Yugoro's *fate-talk* ever again. She had her blond hair tied in a crook, and a pair of thick glasses on her face, which nearly hid her violet eyes.

"Ladies should be refined." Ichigawa Saya, the epitome of being refined packed into a kimono. How she actually managed to move in a kimono or fight in it was a mystery, but being a Genjutsu user, most probably she wouldn't survive in a Taijutsu spar. She was the example of what a refined wife would be, with dark hair, brown eyes, little of stature, her skin pale. The only problem was that she packed a worst character than Shoko on her worst days, and Shoko had given a new meaning to *worst*.

"Silence in the classroom!" Yugito yelled, she had accept to be a teacher for this class more for the sake of a fellow Jinchuuriki, than because she actually enjoyed being a teacher. Sure, the brats had grown on her, but it didn't matter. She was glad it was going to end with this class. She looked for a brief moment, her gaze softening, when she saw the kid smile and make her a *victory* gesture.

The first time they had met, she was still a student of B, not a Jounin-sensei, but she was the Jinchuuriki of the Nibi, the two tails, Matatabi, and had been put under the training of B, who was the Jinchuuriki of the Hachibi, the eight tails.

"I *must* stress the importance of taking this second part seriously. We will use live weapons for the first time." Naruto feigned dozing off, "obviously, if you trained with them at home, or with stupidly idiotical and bulky morons," Naruto grinned in his feigned sleep, "then you're pretty much set. Now let's go to the training grounds."

Naruto would have sleep-walked till there, had he not been taken by the ear by Yugito herself.

"Since you think it's easy, then you're going to go first!" she snapped at him, as he whined about the unfairness of such a treatment. The moment he reached the throwing area, he grabbed the ten shurikens in one hand, and the ten kunais in the other, and threw all of them without even watching. A set of dull noises later, and all targets had their heads hit, precisely in the eyes.

"…Show off." Was the general murmur, as even Saya, for a brief moment, felt compelled to actually act unlady-like and tell him a piece of her mind.

"Jealous? My, a fair lady such as yourself should know that fate…" a fist in the face later, courtesy of Shoko, it was everyone else turns to show their skills.

The final part was the basic display of jutsus, but as Yugito couldn't stress enough, if, by chance, some moronic over-muscled freak idiot had trained them in the use of destructive ones, then, by all means, it was polite to warn the senseis before so that they could avoid destroying a classroom.

The three examiners watched Naruto enter with a wide grin on his face, and all three sighed.

"Fine, what did that dumb idiot teach you this time?" the one to speak was a red-haired dark skinned woman, known as Karui, who perfectly knew and respected Killer B, but still thought of him as an idiot.

"You'll see, Karui-sensei!" after a set of hand symbols, Naruto clapped his hands together while yelling:

Fūton: Reppūshō! (Wind release: Gale Palm)

Darui, who was the second sensei for the evaluation, looked unfazed, as the sheets which held the overall results, or had notes on the participants, began flying through the room.

Yugito, who was the third and final sensei, looked on the verge of having a nervous breakdown, but managed to grit under her teeth.

"F-Fine. You pass. Get the damn forehead protector and get out of here BEFORE I TEAR YOU TO SHREDS!" Darui, no matter how unfazed he looked, threw a Kumo forehead protector at Naruto, who caught it with a smile and started running off, avoiding just narrowly being *scratched* by Yugito's elongated nails who growled at the agility of the boy, that and the fact that she was being held by Karui, who was shooting accusatory glances at Darui, especially because he wasn't helping at all.

"Sorry about him. Grilled meat tonight?" Darui suggested, once Yugito finally calmed down.

"That Baka will probably prefer Ramen at Hakkaku's; just to eat and make ME fat." Yugito pouted back, earning a chuckle from Karui.

"What's so funny, flat board?" as Yugito muttered that, a large vein started bulging on Karui's forehead.

"Better flat and thin than having fat on the …back side."

"I DO NOT HAVE A…"  
Darui coughed, "Sorry for your outbursts. Should we get on with the exams, before the sun sets?"

*Konoha*

Minato clenched his fists, and hit the wall of the Hokage's office with strength. He repeated that motion once more, then again, and again, and finally he started doing the same with his head.

"Hey boy! What's your problem now?" the familiar voice of his sensei made him turn around, in surprise.

"Jiraiya…come in." the toad hermit was standing halfway inside the office, and halfway outside, being in the middle of the window.

"Nah, I'm fine here boy." The man replied, shrugging as he sat down and took out his notebook, ready to jot down some new ideas for the new book. Icha-Icha violence! He felt a nice feeling: it was going to be a success.

"It is of the utmost importance." As Minato said that, Jiraiya nodded, closing the window behind him, and as Minato activated the privacy seals in the office, he pulled the window's curtains, stopping the light from entering the room.

"If this is something kinky, my answer is no Minato, you know I'm straight!" Jiraiya joked, but suddenly, he felt it, a nervousness and uneasiness he hadn't felt in a while.

"What's the problem boy?" he asked once more, seriously.

"You were right on Danzo: he no longer had Naruto with him." The voice was sad and riddled with guilt.

"I told you! So, where did he bring him to train! You don't have to worry, I'll go grab him and make him my apprentice, so he'll be safe and sound."

"He didn't bring him anywhere." Minato replied, his voice trembling.

"You can't tell me you believe him!" Jiraiya was angry about this, fooling Minato once, pass, but twice? Was Minato losing his senses?

"I had both Ibiki and Inoichi have a round with him, and while he was a tough nut to crack, he confessed everything, and even dismantled Root for real this time, just to prove his point. He even handed over the scrolls with the missions on looking for Naruto that he had signed his Root-nins, but none were successful." Minato's voice was trembling.

"I…I sent my son to die, didn't I, Jiraiya-sensei?"

"Now Minato, you don't know how much I'd like to have you pass through a couple of my Rasengans, just to bring the point across that YOU HAVE BEEN AN IDIOT! You made the life of one of your children the happiest, and condemned the other to misery and the path of a weapon! I'll try and look for him, Minato. I'll try. I won't stop until I'll bring you back a corpse or him. However, have you already told Kushina?"

Jiraiya felt the uneasiness in Minato, who whispered.

"I told her over five years ago, when she came back from an Anbu mission and spoke of how there was a blond kid that looked just like Katsumi, and how he had been mistreated and abused and she actually wanted to adopt him..."

"So you gave him to DANZO!" Jiraiya yelled, furious.

"No…it's just that Naruto didn't come to Ichiraku's like Kushina had thought, and when she went to the Uchiha compound, which at the time had been purged while she was on her mission…she found his jumpsuit covered in blood and no signs of the boy. So she gave him for dead, killed in the crossfire and actually cried for the un-named boy."

"You could have told her he was still alive." Jiraiya hissed.

"I didn't know at the time! Danzo only told me later that he had a *prodigal* weapon to show me, to face off the enemies of Konoha. Then he started taking time. That's when you came in, but by the time you told me it was Naruto's, Danzo kept lying, telling he was emotionless and would simply work on a kill or be killed basis. By the time you uncovered the truth, that Danzo no longer had him, it was too late to change the news to Kushina…" Minato was on the verge of crumbling down; at least, his words carried that much emotion in them.

"I'll go look for the boy, Minato, what is going to happen to the bastard though?" at that question, Minato smirked.

"Nothing, the council decided he was acting on the benefit of Konoha, so…"

"I'M killing that damn council! One day, just you wait! Is there anything else?" the bout of rage came and went swiftly, as the Toad hermit queried.

"No." As Minato shook his head, Jiraiya nodded.

"Good, then I'll be off…but you will have to tell Kushina."

"But…" Minato tried to refuse.

"NO BUTS. She's crying for two persons, when in truth they are only one! She had the right to know, and you will tell her or I will!"

"Fine,"

With that, Minato disengaged the privacy seals, and just as Jiraiya was about to exit, the door swung open, to actually reveal Kushina coming in with Katsumi on her tails. Her long red hair tied into two ponytails, her blond cerulean eyes and a happy smile, while wearing an orange jumpsuit that made her look like a tomboy.

"Ero-sennin!" she exclaimed, waving at Jiraiya who shook his head and left in silence.

"What was wrong with him?" Kushina queried, perplexed as to why the Sannin hadn't replied with his usual *I'm not a pervert, but a super pervert!* cameo.

Even Katsumi was surprised by that, and she too looked worriedly to Minato, who gulped down nervously.

"Honey…I need to speak with you alone…please don't hate me."

*Kumogakure*

"Ramen! Ramen! RAMEN!" Yugito muttered in her half asleep state on the couch where B had placed her: in the apartment the Jinchuurikis shared there were five rooms, plus a living room that doubled as a kitchen and a relax area, which held the couch that now had the Nibi Jinchuuriki on. There was even a karaoke machine by the side, attached to the television.

"She was the one against it, wanting fish, sushi, and the like, and then, when she wasn't stopping, we had to pry her off the table." C muttered dark in his face, as he spoke to Karui who had passed by to see how the lunch had gone, and seeing Yugito in a delirium she naturally had queried on her friend's situation.

"Yeah, by the way, the Raikage wants to see you lot..." Naruto shook his head, as he gave the *cue* to Killer B.

"Yo-ho-ho! A meeting we're having"

"No time for partying!" Naruto replied.

"Brother is waiting!"

"Let's keep the heat shaking!" afterwards they bro-fisted each other, giving a set of shivers down everyone, especially Yugito, who just felt good enough to go puke by herself.

"I'm…leaving." Karui replied, dashing out.

"I forgot to buy dinner!" C muttered, running out behind Karui.

"Sorry for them! C, I'm coming with you!" Darui yelled, dashing behind C.

When Yugito actually came out of the bathroom, she stared at a horrible scene. Naruto, wearing the Kumo headband protector, with a pair of shades similar to that of B, plus he was wearing a matching outfit with that of B, purple and white.

"No." Was all that Yugito said, before dragging Naruto to his own room, and make him emerge minutes later with a normal and somber ninja outfit, which had a dark brown and dark yellow tint, with black stitching and a pair of long cargo pants, the kunai pouch and a bandolier going from the left shoulder to the right side of his body.

"There, now off to see the chief." With that, the trio of Jinchuurikis headed off to the Raikage's office, the large blue tower in the middle of Kumo.

"I've got to ask, why weren't there the team assignments?" Naruto queried.

"Kumo's got a large number of military personnel, only Konoh…" B bit his tongue, hard, as Naruto stopped walking and started shivering.

"NARUTO!" Yugito slapped the boy to the side, making him turn around and stare at the elder Jinchuuriki with his puppy eyes, "it's over, that life of yours is over. Come on, you're a Genin of Kumo now, you graduated one year earlier, show your balls!"

"A-hi." Naruto meekly replied nodding, as B got a murderous glare from Yugito.

"Anyway, we're second best, but the team's composition and assignments are given by the Raikage himself after careful consideration and…" as B continued, he was cut short by Yugito.

"Basically, it's a free-for-all. One mission you can end up with me as a Jounin commander, another one with Darui, and even your team-mates may vary. This helps strengthen us by forming friends and by knowing the strengths and weakness of our fellow ninjas." As Yugito finished explaining the various degrees of missions available and how no, no Genin would ever be sent on an assassination of a high-priority target, they finally got into the Raikage's office, without knocking.

A's fists shot forward, grabbing B in his famous *Iron Claw* punishment method.

"GAH! Bro! What is this for!" B protested.

"You taught the kiddo another destruction jutsu! You damn idiot! Teach him something useful once in a while!" as A finished his rant on the stupidity of teaching a young boy high-level destruction techniques, Naruto simply jumped and grabbed a hold of the Raikage's neck.

"TOU-SAN! I DID IT!"

Somewhere, in Konoha, a really beaten up blond haired man shivered deeply. Very, very deeply.

**Author's notes.**

**Damn cliffhanger!**

**Now, pinky swear, once I finish Demilich in Tristain, this story plus *Making of a Kage* will be kept going.**


	2. Departure

Second Chapter

*Flashback*

When Monster had come to his senses, after the hits taken by the kunais and the shurikens, he had realized he was still alive. Somewhere, a part of him was regretting that. Somewhere else, he knew that this simply meant he was alive to take another beating. He slowly opened one eye, not even much, just a little, that a voice, the same voice of the man that had given him out, came into his ears.

"The kid woke up." He wanted to refuse waking up actually, to tell him he was wrong, and that he could feign sleeping, or a near death comatose state, pretty well, he had a lot of practice on those.

Still, Monster knew he had no choice, but to slowly open both eyes, and then nearly let out a scream, nearly, because the muscle-bound freak had swiftly placed a hand on his mouth, hushing him into silence. Oh hell, he knew what this was, he knew it, he didn't want to, and he had gotten lucky till then, but now he knew it, that big bad horrible man was going to…

"You hungry?" Offer him food? Well, Monster knew it was either that or an innuendo of something that made him cringe inside.

Still, he thought it would be polite not to comment on the fact, and wait until the man realized he was keeping his primary oxygen resource closed, thankfully Danzo-sama had trained him pretty well with torture. Heck, he had even congratulated him on surviving so long on being literally burned alive by scorching hot irons. He didn't mention the years of practice to actually achieve said goal, even before entering the ROOT training program, unwanted practice no doubt.

"B-sensei, if you don't remove your hand you might suffocate him." The dark skinned white haired man commented, which got him first a surprised look from B, then a swift removal of the hand.

Monster could finally breathe in air again, finally!

"Sorry for B-sensei, kid." As the white haired man said that, a small tick appeared on Monster's forehead.

"Well kiddo, you won't warn your family we're trespassing in the Land of Sound, right?" as the hulking macho finished talking, another figure, more graceful, moved closer to him and looked at him with a sympathetic smile.

Monster nodded. He wasn't actually lying; Danzo-sama wasn't his family, he didn't need something that weak. He no longer had any sadness or ill sentiment towards this thing called family that others had and he hadn't, as many ROOT operative didn't have a family and were strong. Danzo-sama had told him that family made one weak, and that only obeying was strength, that, and becoming a perfect weapon. He had particularly stressed the importance for him to learn how to use a strange red chakra, which he managed to get when his emotions rampaged out of control, into a more stable form. He had gotten angry once when he had been deemed a failure in the Bunshin technique, and had been called *Worthless*. Since he was Monster, and he had to become the perfect weapon, being called worthless made him angry, really angry. He should have called him Monster, it was his name, Danzo-sama had decided that, and that was final! He was not called Worthless!

Danzo-sama had calmed him after he had killed the sensei, who Danzo-sama had then deemed weak for having failed. That was when he had been patted on the head by Danzo-sama, and that was a really fond memory he wouldn't forget, ever, as Danzo-sama has said that he was Monster, and that he was going to be the perfect weapon without fail.

"Why did you have a radio set?" the *sensor* guy queried once more, and Monster cocked his head slightly to the side.

Was he referring to the *Talkie-Talkie* thing? Push the button and talk only when they talk to you first? He had been trained not to mind, equipment either worked or did not, latter of which it wasn't meant to work in the first place and it was a test to see who was worthless and who was to become the perfect weapon.

"He doesn't seem to be the speaking type, B-sensei: we could give him breakfast and then send him on his way." As the blond haired kunoichi suggested that, C shook his head.

"He was jumping from tree branch to tree branch, and faint as it was, there was the smell of blood on the kid."

The tick mark on Monster grew bigger.

"He's just a kid, C!" the white haired guy commented.

"Darui, he's not a kid." The C guy was starting to be his favorite now, still the tick mark of nervousness stood there.

"Yeah, and what is he, a Sannin?" Yugito took that moment to make some sarcasm, but, too bad for her, Monster looked at her perplexed.

"What is a Sannin?" he asked, interested. Was it better than Monster, like Perfect weapon? Or was it like Worthless?

"You don't know? It's the term used to define the legendary trio from Konoh…" B had barely said the last letter that Monster had already charged him with his right fist, flying in a blind rage.

B had parried the fist with ease, but the Gaki had then summersaulted using the fist as a focal movement, cracking his own dam wrist in an effort to throw a kneecap on the back of the muscle macho.

When he was blocked in his attempt by Darui, the first to actually intervene, blocking him with his right arm, he could feel both him being pulled backwards, but also the boy's very own bones break.

"What is…" going on, Yugito couldn't reply, as B, taking the offense, gave the boy a quick punch in the stomach, sending him to the land of dreams.

"Did you see that?" C muttered.

"One moment he's all *what is a Sannin?*" Yugito muttered, "The other he charges through like a beast. What could that be?"

"Mental conditioning," Darui muttered, "whatever it is, it has to do with the word *Konoha*" as soon as he said that, he actually assumed a defensive position, because the boy, no matter the hit from B, actually twitched at the word.

"It seems to have an effect even when fainted? Just who'd do such a thing? And why?" C whispered getting closer to the boy, who now, thanks to B's punch, certainly needed to have his ribs checked.

"What do we do with him?" Yugito queried.

"Well, we carried a Gaki till here and we'll carry him till there.

And if he won't wake up here, and he won't wake up there,

Then we'll rap a song and wake him up in Kumogakure!" as B finished rapping, he saw the gaze of his students, already full -fledged Chuunins, all disapprove.

"I don't care, we're doing this…" especially because he felt the chakra of a tailed beast, as the Hachibi had told him, but that, B kept to his own thoughts.

"Should I heal him?" C queried, but B shook his head.

"Not now, first we get away from the Land of Sound, then we can take our time, your healing Jutsus are still a bit rusty, and I don't want you accidentally killing him, you know? Plus, with a broken wrist there are less chances he tries something. Splint his arm and hand, so he doesn't move the bone wrong, but let's leave him nice and unconscious for a while."

"Hai, B-sensei"

It was a little bit after the third night, that Monster actually came back to his senses. It was actually a miracle he hadn't died, depending on which version you'd listen to the story. On one side, Yugito said that the boy should have already been dead, with broken ribs puncturing lungs and the like, and that not happening was just a sign of Kami that the boy would lose all his luck. B on the other hand commented that throwing a boy high in the sky and running over a mountain's wall to grab him and jump downwards the other side was perfectly normal, healthy, and reinforced the spirit.

When Monster actually woke up, he was at a camp, deep within a set of mountains, his right hand seemed stiff, and, staring at his, he realized it had been splinted pretty well, by expert hands too. Much better than what he usually did to his own broken bones, as he had self-taught himself, like any other kid in root, the means of first-aid.

"Where?" He queried with a puzzled look, the question hang in his mouth for a moment, as he was indeed surprised of the scenery. All he saw were mountains, rocks, and more mountains. Was it Iwa? No, it should be Kumo, as memories of the last events entered his brain, he recalled the Kumo ninja's, unless they had been feigning being from Kumo, in which case he'd be anywhere with mountains, even the land of Earth could do, and that would actually mean Iwa. Or maybe they were rogue ninjas who had kidnapped him, and were planning on exchanging him back to Konoha with information or jutsus? He had to do what Danzo-sama had instructed him to do.

Still, he had spoken first instead of thinking, so now they knew he was awake, the sensor ninja certainly would have already said it, but looking around, Monster realized he was alone with the blond girl, who was pouting and cursing by the fire of the camp, and hadn't even heard him ask the question.

That was his chance. He slowly began to crawl away, careful not to make even the slightest pebble move under the weight of his feet, as he took small steady breathes to ignore the sharp pain in his stomach. He thanked his regenerative powers that he was still alive, but still, he had to make it down that damn mountain and back to Danzo-sama.

He had to become the perfect weapon for Danzo-sama, so he would help him stop being hit by the people in the village. That's when his right foot barely misplaced a small rock pebble. He froze on the spot. He should think about escaping, not about his future. He wasn't going to be captured alive. Danzo-sama had told him to run, and if he was being hunted closely, to kill himself.

He turned around, and silently thanked Kami that a Monster like him had managed to get that far from the fire pit, only to turn around and let out a scream, as Yugito's face was mere inches away from his, and she was grinning.

"Going somewhere, kid?" she said in a teasing tone, but before she could finish and grab him, Monster had already thrown himself to the side, to the side of the mountain, to the ravine below, to a deadly fall of over a thousand meters. Yugito cursed Kami, on the other hand, and began running downwards, while using explosive tags to make a side of the mountain crumple and scatter the rock pieces far from the mountain's side, so that she could run on top of them, grab the kid, and then run back on them with un-human agility to the mountain's side, holding the kid by the neck.

"Anf…no more than five years old, and with a death wish already?" as she slowly made her way back up, she was pretty sure, a certainty that became manifest when B-sensei, Darui and C Shunshin'd back to camp, that she had made enough noise to attract any ninja in a kilometer's good radius.

"We move camp, you explain later, I hold the kid" B ordered, as the camp was quickly dismantled, and the muscle bound freak grabbed the boy, Monster didn't protest, the man was stronger than him, and he was being held with a strength enough to bend his ribs, if he just applied a little bit more of force, he might just as swell snap him in two. The camp moving had been a quick event: they had barely set up camp once more, this time in a narrow cave, where Monster was brought down from the tanned man's shoulder and on eye-level with him.

"You have eaten nothing for three days straight, nor drank, and yet you make all this noise? What are you, a real Sannin?" as B queried that, Monster looked at him with a puzzled look, again with that question?

"I'm Monster." He replied, with a bit of pride.

"Monster? That's your nickname. Are you an academy trainee of Oto?" B queried, puzzled.

"No, Monster is Monster." Monster replied matter of fact, again with this stuff of the nicknames, it was getting old.

"So, who trained you?" B asked.

"Monster can't say. He promised not to, or he becomes Worthless, and Worthless gets killed. Worthless always gets killed." Monster hoped it was enough to let him go back to Danzo-sama.

"Well…What's your name then? I'm B, and I am the best rapper of Kumo," which earned him a set of roll-over eyes from his students, "that one over there is Darui-kun, then we have our sonar/radar ninja C-kun, and finally we have our good little Yugito-chan!"

Monster thought about this, it had already happened once, didn't it? Someone asking him his name, he hadn't even come up for an answer. It had been an entire year.

"Monster," He replied sure of him.

"No, that's a nickname, a name is something like…A, D, J, X," B tried.

"Samui, Darui, Karui," Darui actually suggested his own name.

"Yoko, Saya, or the likes, those are names." Yugito pointed out, "Not *Monster*."

Monster nodded for a minute, then said:

"Demon," What he got in reply was a perplexed look.

"Repeat that?" C queried, B was actually pretty much sure his hunch was proving right, as the Hachibi was telling him the same stuff.

"Demon? Monster? Fox Demon, Trash, I was called Monster though, most of the time, so I thought it was my n…" Yugito actually clung to him after a brief moment of hesitation, hugging him. Monster didn't know how to react to this: was it a hold? A wrestling move? Was it a bone breaker Taijutsu? Was she taking a Kunai out of her sleeve and stabbing him on the back? He didn't know what to do, so he did nothing, staying in wait, frozen, a fact which did wasn't missed by the other Kumo ninjas, who simply saw the boy stiffen and his eyes grew cold and worried.

"Hmm…would you mind lifting up your shirt…Monster-kun?" B asked the question trying his best not to rap, which came really difficult to him, only to be shot down by Yugito's hardened glare. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

"What did they call you except that? Hospital bills? What name did they tell you to use in the hospitals?" releasing the boy from the hug, but keeping her hands on the boy's shoulders, and getting on her knees to see into his eyes, Yugito hoped the boy actually went to a hospital, once, he wasn't more than six years old, surely at least for the blood check, or if he ever got sick...no, she was sure that if he had been sick they'd have left him sick. She just knew how some people reacted to Jinchuurikis, and it wasn't at all how it was in Kumo, at least, sure, the Hachibi had gone mad a couple of time, but there was more respect for them than scorn, in the end both side knew it wasn't anyone's fault, lest of all the Jinchuurikis, and so it simply came down to personal feelings, more than outright ignorance.

"The Headmistress said to me that, when I was meeting the Hokage or I was in the hospital, I should be called Naruto…because I was a worthless ramen topping to be discarded, that she said." Monster simply nodded in recollection of the words of the Headmistress, yet why was the young woman sobbing? Did he do something wrong now?

"A Ninja should steel its emotions." B stated, more like a whisper, to Yugito, who took a moment to recollect her thoughts, and calm Matabi down from going on a rampage against those who'd, her words, *Dare harm such a cute little innocent boy I'd just snatch away to cuddle in a corner*, before saying with a small smile. The worst *she* had been called was *fur ball*, and even then, that was more of a tease than an actual insult.

"Then your name is Naruto, but not because you are discarded as a ramen topping, they are actually quite good to eat, you got that, Naruto-kun?" as Yugito smiled at him, Monster didn't understand it, yet, but he had just been named once more. Still, he felt a strange warm sensation in the back of his stomach, as he kept up a frowning and not understanding face…

*End of flashback*

"Otou-san! Otou-san!" Naruto was happily chuckling as he held the neck of his adoptive father with a wide grin, obviously, had A wanted to, he'd throw the boy out of the window with less than a second of thought, but the boy would probably just climb back up, and do that again. So he simply decided to keep the boy on his back, it was still exercise, of some sorts.

"Well then, I've got you lot a nice easy work as a first mission…you all ready?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, Otou-san, does that mean…" as Yugito smiled at the thought of actually being with her practically adopted little brother, she actually had a frown on her face seconds later, just as B instead simply started the set of complicated hand motions that he and Naruto had practiced on for when they had to clap their hands for important stuff.

"Raikage-sama, isn't it risky to send us all out at once, in the same group?" as Yugito asked that, the Raikage smiled for a moment.

"It would need a lot of fools to even think to defeat a trio like yours, plus, I did think I told Karui to go grab C, he'll act as your medic-nin and Sensor,"

"Otou-san, why are you sending out three Jounins with a Genin?" Naruto was happy, really, he was, but he kind of wondered why he'd get preferential treatment, at least that was his thought, and he didn't want that, he wanted to be treated like the other kids!

"You have yet to master control of the Kyuubi Chakra, Naruto…since it's considered to be far more powerful than that of the Nibi or the Hachibi, if you go mad while training it would be best to have two other Jinchuuriki nearby to calm you, and a medic-nin to heal any wounds." The Raikage had slowly gotten on his knees, smiling at the boy.

"Otou-san…" Naruto looked with pleading eyes at A, who rolled his eyes over.

"That's final! Anyway, you've got a C-rank mission straight from the beginning, so no whining! Your mission is going to be in the land of waves, which is far and near…" he stopped for a moment seeing both Yugito and B gasp, "that other hidden village. You have been given permission papers, so all you actually need to do is just to show up at this point, on the map…which I'm giving to the most trustworthy of you." As he said that, folding a map in a scroll, he went to hand it over to Yugito, who was smiling, until the scroll passed over her to C, who had just arrived.

She frowned and B and Naruto chuckled at that.

"You should protect the Bridge Builder Tazuna-san from harm, he's going to be in *that* village for supplies, and then he's going to meet you on the road, since we won't be escorting him from the beginning, he only pays us for a D-mission, which is perfect for Naruto-kun here." Then, his tone darkened.

"Since it will take you a month to get over there, you'd better stock up on supplies, and while you're at it, start training the Gaki…once you get out of the land of Lightning, I don't want to have to rebuild an entire apartment complex, because *someone* forgot to keep his chakra levels low!" as A said that, he looked at both Yugito and B, while Naruto whistled and C sweat-dropped.

"Furthermore, if any ninja from that *village* try anything funny, I want you to point out that this blond haired brat is MY son. You got that Bro? Keep an eye out for your nephew." As A said that, B grinned when the two Bro-Fisted, sending small sonic waves around, as Naruto raised an eyebrow, but, as with the things he didn't understand, decided not to question his Otou-san.

"Now, Naruto, go and get ready while I finish speaking with the rest of your team-mates." The boy nodded, hugging one last time A before departing as swiftly as he had arrived.

Turning his serious Raikage face on, he said:

"I know your complaints, but he needs to get used to hearing that word and seeing that headband, the fact that right now there are no trades, nor words of alliance or not between us and Konoha doesn't mean that in the future it will still be like that, there is a distension policy in action, so keep your cool." As A pointed that out, B was about to rap something, before getting Iron Clawed to the ground, again.

"Anyway, Tazuna *might* or might have not hired some Konoha Nins too, so you've got a month to get the boy calm and nice with the idea of being together with other ninjas...In any case, keep in mind that he's a Kumo Shinobi, he was one from the moment he walked through that door and told me he wanted to stay here and from the moment I adopted him, if anyone tries something funny to him, then have no mercy and bring him back. Got it?"

The three nodded.

"Good, now you're dismissed."

As they all Shunshin'd away, the Raikage turned back to his desk, letting a memory wash over him.

*Flashback*

The door had opened with a loud bang, as always, and as always A was ready to Iron Claw his brother, only to stop mid-way, when he saw that B was carrying a brat no more than six years old on his shoulder. He stopped because of the eyes, the eyes that stared at him and had a mixture of sadness yes, but understanding, it was like the boy expected *him* to be the target of the Iron Claw, and as such, A had simply stopped. He couldn't do it with those eyes looking straight at him.

"Bro?" B had already prepared himself to being hit, and realizing he wasn't, he had actually been worried that maybe A had been sick or something.

"Can't hit you with a brat on the shoulder," A replied, "where did you get him?"

"Well bro, we were going through Oto,

Dashing through the Oto Nins!

We did the mission in toto,

And we tried to leave and he comes in!

Jumping branch to branch,

He stops and C gives the sign,

So when the kunais get laun…" A had most silently grabbed the boy, had given him over to Yugito, and had them Iron Clawed B twice.

"Without RAPPING!" as A finished muttering curses, his brother had gotten back up, and had replied.

"Well we wounded him by mistake, and since we thought he was a civilian kid we brought him with us, then turns out he's a packed package, you know." Touching his own stomach, B winked at his brother, who looked surprised.

"A Jinchuuriki?"

"Yeah, and he doesn't know that, but he wasn't from Oto, or they'd keep him tight, so I heard his soul and felt his plight and…" as B was actually starting to rap again, A ignored him, and looked over Darui.

"Explain…" while massaging his temples.

"He was probably conditioned mentally, when a specific word is heard…" Yugito looked at Darui, with a murderous glare, which made the white haired teen roll his eyes over and continue, "He gets homicidal, really a lot, with no care for himself, he actually goes as far as breaking his own bones if he needs to."

"So basically it's one mess of a Jinchuuriki."

"Naruto." The boy replied nodding.

"What?" the Raikage queried.

"Not Jinchuuriki, my name is Naruto. First it was Monster, then Demon, then Monster, then Perfect Weapon, then Kid, then Brat, then Naruto. She named me Naruto." As the boy said that, he pointed without bias or anything at Yugito, who looked down at the brown spiked boy with a slight blush.

"I don't think he's been trained in controlling his Bijuu chakra, and we suspect he might be…" Yugito started, but didn't finish, because B interrupted her.

"Well, Bro, he said he's the Demon Fox, so that leaves us with…" B was interrupted by the Raikage.

"The Kyuubi? The Nine-Tails?" A stared at the boy, the weak, frail boy who seemed he could use some meat on his bones, and who was looking at him like expecting something. A moved his right hand, and the boy actually made the imperceptible movement of bringing his cheek forward, like he was expecting to be hit, and he wanted to make it…easier.

"Well, it seems that damn spiky blond idiot,"

Someone in Konoha, five years before, sneezed.

"Actually didn't kill the beast, as he had the news go around…Kid, when were you born?" Naruto stared at the man, trying to think, this didn't actually pertaining a question Danzo-sama had told him not to answer, so he answered.

"Ten of October…is my name Kid now?" he asked slowly.

"No, it's still Naruto." Yugito snapped in, before the Raikage could reply. "It is, and will always be Naruto. *Kid* is…a nickname."

"Nickname…what's a nickname?" Naruto queried.

"Well…I'm Yugito Nii, it's my name and surname, my nickname is *Cat*, it's what my friends call me."

"Friends?" Naruto queried once more.

"…" the general silence in the area was more than enough, for the moment, as A coughed.

"Well so the date the Kyuubi attacked Konoha is…" at that moment, A raised his right hand, as Naruto had all but dashed, furiously, to body slam against the Raikage, jumping straight against him right hand in a fist, ready to hit him in the face.

"BRO!" B actually managed to grab Naruto's leg and pulled him away just in time for A to *not* punch him in the stomach, B's punches and A's punches were different stuff altogether, and the Raikage's one would have probably left the boy in the hospital for weeks.

"So it's the word of that village huh? Suspected as much…" The Raikage muttered looking at the boy that was being held by B, and who didn't even seem to consider himself, going as far as having his clothes torn if necessary, just to get onto him, even dislocating his own shoulders, it had to hurt, but to the kid it didn't even seem to matter at all.

No sense of preservation…what bastard could do this to a kid?

"I like his balls though," A muttered, "fine, first we take care of him, some food, a checkup in the hospital, then I want someone to keep an eye on him and get him…well, I don't say normal, but bearable." As he rolled his eyes over, Darui gave a quick hand-chop to Naruto's neck, sending him to faint on the ground, only for Yugito to actually grab him and give her team-mate a scornful stare.

"Well, *Cat* here can take care of the boy. You lot, I expect a written report on my desk by tomorrow, dismissed!" as A turned his back on the desk, he waited until his brother's team was gone, to stare out of the window of his office, into the view of Kumogakure.

"Those eyes…" he muttered simply, getting back to the work load on his desk.

*Flashback end – Kumo front gate*

"So, first we go through Shimo no kuni, then through Yu no kuni, and then we go through Hi no kuni for a while, till the meeting point," no reaction from Naruto made everyone happy, "and finally we reach Nami no kuni. Got that down?" as C asked that, holding the map, he received nods from everyone.

"Yes! When are we going to train C-san?"

"Naruto-kun, this is our first mission, as a team, I say B-san can be the Sensei, alright?" as Yugito suggested that, the boy nodded.

"Fine by me! So…" Naruto smiled and turned to B, "When are we going to train B-sensei?"

"Yo! Let's get some distance between us and the city, you heard the boss! Then later we make camp and I'll teach ya!" as B signaled them to start moving, they dashed off.

*Konoha*

"Kushina-hime, please…let me explain!" Minato was on his knees on a bag of beans, looking miserable in front of his wife, who had kept slapping at him for a good part of the day, and, after coming home, in the Namikaze estate, she had thrown him to sleep on the couch, and had refused speaking to him at all.

As she was cooking dinner, every chop she made cut deeper into the wooden surface of the table, finally, she grabbed the knife and exasperated, launched it against the head of Minato, who moved his head to the left, avoiding it by the length of a hair.

"Our Katsumi-chan is going to come back any moment now, from the academy. She's going to smile and tell us everything is fine and speak about fashion and boys. Meanwhile, somewhere, there's a young boy who is just like her, but is scared, probably hungry, and left alone in the woods, left to die as a weapon for that bastard Danzo! And all of this is happening because his father chose to let him suffer alone." Kushina looked at the fourth Hokage with a saddened expression, and then went back to preparing dinner.

Minato knew he had little excuses, but it had to be done, he was in the right with his decision.

"What then? He would still have ended up as a weapon for Danzo, to be used by him to bring me down of my position as Fourth, and then Katsumi-chan would have had to leave with the social stigma of having a Jinchuuriki as a brother. She would have hated her brother for her sufferings, and you would…"

"Don't speak for me!" Kushina exclaimed back, "I cried tears of pain when you told me he died at birth, and I cried tears of joy when you told me he hadn't, and then when I went and didn't find him there, I cried again at having lost him once more! You kept him hidden for another year from my arms, and I couldn't even see him once as he grew up!" The red-haired woman's eyes turned watery, as she shook her head.

"If Jiraiya-sama finds him, and pray for Kami he does, I want you to recognize him as my son. I don't care about Danzo, I can snap his neck if he even says a word. I want my son back, Minato. Give him back to me, his mother, and maybe, if he does, I'll forgive you too." As she finished speaking, Kushina stared down at the food she should have been preparing.

Well, she had placed the salt with the sugar and had mixed the custard with the mayo, and had then chopped a raw piece of meat in the middle of an onigiri, an onigiri which was *moving* across the table.

She sighed, shaking her head.

"I can't cook tonight." She muttered.

"I could order Ramen Takeaway." Minato suggested getting up, as Kushina stared at him angrily, when they both heard the door open, and a female voice yell from the hallway:

"Kaa-san, Otou-san, I'm back!" Kushina's face was a mixture of nervousness and sadness: she didn't know wherever to tell her daughter that she had a brother whom her father sent to die. She shook her head, letting her red hair move slowly on her shoulder. She'd tell her after her Genin exams, next year.

Still, she couldn't fathom staying too close to her, the wound still fresh in her heart, and as she looked towards Minato, she silently lip-spoke:

"I want a mission out of Konoha."

*Land of Snow-Days later*

The groups of Kumo ninja were walking on a snow-covered hill in the land of frost, which was positioned nearby a small meadow, with, at a slight distance, a cold stream of frozen water, and a cave. Killer Bee was the first of the line, with C behind and Darui in the back, his hands in his pocket and grinning at the sight Naruto walking with his *weight*, and Yugito next to him, watching with a small grin the young Genin work.

"So, I get it, I've got wind affinity. Yes, I need chakra control. Still…why are walking into this damn cold and Kami be damned country and I'm the only one with weights!" as Naruto exclaimed that, he was carrying on his back a large iron pot, whom he had no idea where C had taken it out from. The exercise was pretty simple: he'd have to send enough chakra to remain on the snow, and not too much to actually crush it and send him knee-deep in the cold white stuff.

"Yo Kiddo, this is training! You heard da-boss!" B replied, rapping, "C-kun is everything alright near us?"

"Sensei, there's nothing around us for miles" C muttered, having sensed nothing.

"We make camp then, Naruto, go and fill the kettle with snow, then we'll have Yugito-chan turn it to water, and we'll have instant ramen! The food of champions, yo!"

"Alright!" Naruto actually dashed, reaching for the frozen river with the iron pot, eager to get some food into his stomach.

"Ramen? B-Sensei, ramen isn't good every day as breakfast, lunch, and dinner." Yugito muttered.

"Sensei, I say we can start training him some jutsu…just look at him running back." Darui said; pointing out how, even with the thin ice, Naruto had actually managed to reach a broken area of the ice, where it was, by nature, thinner, and after having filled it with the water, was already making his way back, without falling in the snow.

Yugito rolled her eyes, sighing, "For Ramen he'd learn S-rank prohibited Jutsus in a day."

When Naruto got back, he grinned looking at the group of Kumo ninja, as he slowly placed the pot down, he saw B throw him a scroll.

"Look Kiddo, you know I'd love to help you, but no-one here has got Wind Affinity, so you're on your own with that scroll there, should teach you a jutsu called Futon: Daitoppa! (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)…now, what we can do is train you until you get going with lightning affinity. So, first off, focus chakra on the tip of your right index." As B showed him his right hand's index, which started glowing a bright blue hue, Naruto tried doing the same, obtaining a fading and shaking blue color, and looked at B in wait for the next step, as he did, however, he lost control and the chakra dissipated.

"Well, once you got that down, you start making your chakra vibrate, until it starts to spark," as B said that, the blue hue started becoming brighter and brighter, until sparks of electricity began to dance along all the length of the finger.

"Once you do this with both hands," as B said that, both his hands started sparkling with electricity, "you can release the Raiton: Jibashi!" (Electromagnetic murder) as B touched the ground, the sparks moved a little, before dying out.

"The more chakra you put in it, the stronger it becomes. It can go from shocking to out-right killing boy, so be careful on that!"

"Which brings up the jutsu I am going to teach you: Raiton: Kangekiha, (Wave of Inspiration)." As Darui did a couple of hand signs, he then showed his hands glowing brightly with electricity, that he discharged on the iron pot, sending the water inside to jump outside and fall on Naruto, who had been pretty much warm and cozy and NOT drenched till seconds before.

Yugito looked at the scene, raising a twitching eyebrow, while Naruto started shivering and batting his teethes.

"Good Kami, I've been banded together with idiots." With a set of quick signs, a flame wave emerged from Yugito's mouth, hitting the pot and what water remained inside, while Naruto had moved closer to the flame, to dry himself off.

Yugito kept it going for just a couple of minutes more, and then finished the technique.

"Thanks Yugito-oneechan!" Naruto smiled at the blond woman, who sighed.

"What would you lot do without me." She grinned slightly at the thought.

"Anyway, when you train with lightning, know that the moment it leaves your body it becomes slower, as Wind affinity is actually strong against Lightning Affinity because it's a natural insulated material." As B finished explaining, Naruto nodded then sat down next to the pot, and began concentrating, keeping his eyes fixed on his right finger. He'd make it work, he was sure of it.

Darui and B went to scout ahead, while C remained in his sensor mode and Yugito actually growled, as they had silently made her the instant ramen cook.

She had just barely grabbed the powdered ramen from her backpack, that a spark caught her attention, as it caught that of C, who, being the sensor, was actually seeing Naruto's coil concentrate their Chakra to his right hand extremity.

Another spark, then another, then his hand began sparkling with raw current, as Yugito stared in silence at such an impossible feat: in less than an hour? That was impossible!

Naruto was concentrating, hard. He didn't want B to think he was weak and couldn't do it. He didn't want C to think he was weak, nor Darui, or Yugito. He wanted to show them he was a full-fledged ninja of Kumo, as he wanted to show he was going to be able to do it. He felt his hand going slightly numb, as he poured as much chakra as possible in it, feeling the sparks increase in number, until, in the end, he opened his eyes to be greeted with a slightly glowing hand, with small sparks of electricity flying across his palm.

"Well done, Naruto-kun, I'm impressed." Yugito muttered, looking at the boy's eyes suddenly lighting up in glee, and making such a beautiful smile, she couldn't help but slightly grin to.

She would have hugged him, following Nibi's suggestion if only her hair hadn't been perking up from her sides, a clear sign that there was a lot of static electricity in the air.

"Naruto, you should discharge that." C said, pointing at Naruto's hand.

The blond spiked kid nodded, moving a bit away from camp, heading towards the meadow.

"He actually flooded the entire area with his chakra, would you believe it?" C was puzzled: it was a strange sign even for Yugito.

"Well, it happens in the beginning, to miscalculate the amount." Yugito replied, getting back to the instant ramen.

"You don't get it: the entire area, till that river over there." C pointed at the stream, "is slightly filled with his chakra. He's got enormous reserves, not counting his tenant, I even have to concentrate to see through it, and let me tell you it's not an easy task." With that, Yugito simply nodded and went back to making sure the water didn't freeze while the ramen cooked.

"The coast is clear, sorry we're late." Darui replied a couple of minutes later.

"Yo! Where's the kid?" B queried.

"He's not with you?" Yugito dreaded the reply of B.

"No, sorry," Darui replied, shaking his head.

"Calm down, it's not like there is anything here that wants him dead, he's going to be fine." C replied, as he did, however, he started scanning the area as much as he could.

*Fortress of the Snow Daimyo, prisons*

The floor was cold, dirty, and with pieces of wet and cold hay scattered around. The walls were grey and cold to the touch, as anything else in there was too.

He would have been angry. He should have been angry. The truth was however that he felt more embarrassment than anything else at the moment. He had *discharged* his hand against a tree bark, earning himself a slight shock too, and as his hand has gone a bit numb with the electricity, he had decided he could take a quick *relief trip* behind a bush.

Said bush had swiftly provided to knock the wind out of him before he could even react, worst of all, when he had his pants down.

When he had woken up, he was both glad and saddened. Glad, because there wasn't a really pissed Yugito who had warned him time and time again to double check his surroundings before doing anything, even yawn, and saddened, because he was in a prison cell, with a strange mechanical device that seemed to enjoy staying tightly attached to his right arm.

Furthermore, he felt his legs hurt. It had been a while since he had last felt his leg actually hurt, as he could take normal pain levels easily, and only higher degrees of pain could actually make him wince, or outright cry, and, as he gave them a quick glance, and then averted his sight, he bitterly thought about how, maybe, broken legs wouldn't be that easily repaired in a night by the Kyuubi's chakra.

He knew of the Kyuubi, inside of him, since he had been seven years old, and had trained with B to at the very least not go into a rampage. He had never spoken to the demon, the seal on his body was still too strong for that, and, maybe, it was luck that he hadn't turned a mad jabbering mess. The seal was the handy work of the fourth Hokage, he had been told that, he knew it, he knew who was to blame for all of his sufferance and pain, and he kind of wanted him to suffer the same way he had, but then he shook his head, biting his lower lip removing the dark thoughts of inescapable tortures and darkness.

This time it was going to go differently, yes, this time there was someone who was caring for him, and they'd come and save him, they'd come and rescue him from where he was, certainly, they wouldn't deliver him straight into the hands of the enemy, and then leave without even considering what was going to happen to him. That red-haired woman, Kushina, was it? She still haunted his dreams at night, and he never had pleasant dreams, not most of the time. He had lost count of the time he had woken up startled by something he had seen, or felt, his dreams were so damn real he could swear they still hurt. Right now, however, he had to keep his mind busy with happy thoughts, or he'd crack. He would have laughed at the irony of using the ROOT procedure to resist torture, when they had been the prime source of the torture itself, and were now going to safe his ass from being tortured. He'd die rather than reveal anything on Kumo, or on B or Yugito, or C, or Darui, or Otou-san, or anyone else.

Within the next hour, thoughts of how any moment now the Hachibi form of B would break up the wall and free him came into his mind, as he realized he no longer had much of his clothing on, and cold *was* cold. He felt from a high above small window, riddled with iron bars, a hellishly freezing wind, that just seemed to enjoy coming around him.

He looked at his arm, where they had placed the strange mechanical device, and only then, when he tried to pamper with is some more, he heard a voice.

"I wouldn't do it: it might just as well explode." The reply came from a female voice, which sounded prideful and haughty.

As Naruto moved his head slightly to the side he looked surprised, there was a girl there. Dressed in strange clothing, of blue and red, but she did look having been a bit roughed around the edges.

"So…who are you?" The question, quite actually, was posed by both the individuals at the same time.

"I'm Naruto." The boy replied, with a nod.

"I'm Yukie…you don't know who I am, right?" she queried, actually surprised the boy hadn't tried to get an autograph from her.

"Should I?" At first, Naruto tried to recall the bingo book, but shook that dreaded thought out of his head, no, bad Naruto, no remembering things you don't want to remember, then, seeing how he couldn't he simply shrugged the thought off.

"You ever watched a movie?" the girl queried him once more.

"No." Naruto actually replied, "I'm not much on televisions or films… Why am I here?"

"If you don't know, what makes you think I know?" Yukie rolled her eyes in a scornful way, muttering something about idiots.

"So, why are you here?" Naruto asked once more, giving the girl an analytical look, she didn't seem to have the same thing he had on his arm.

"None of your business," she replied, hastily turning around and outright ignoring him.

"Hey! You could try and be a little gentler to a fellow prisoner!" Naruto replied, staring at the bars, and then, realizing he actually *hadn't* been tied up, strange, he grinned.

"I'm getting us out of here." Then he crawled, ignoring the pain that was being shot towards his brain by his broken limbs.

He tried to concentrate chakra on the palm of his hand.

The next moment, an electrical shock happened, only, it wasn't on his hand, but on all of his body, sending him screaming as he contorted, and in contorting he worsened the already bad situation of his broken limbs, sending agonizing pain all through his body, till he fainted once more, foam at the corner of his mouth.

**I hate you, kid.** A voice boomed, slowly letting the words echo through the gallery of the sewer-like system he had ended up in. From a prison to a sewer, that was quite an interesting change of scenery.

"Is this what B called the mindscape?" Naruto muttered to himself, being till his waist in the water, and yet not feeling cold, or even wet.

**Yes **The voice came from a set of high metal bars, a gate, which had a seal to act as a key.

"You are…the Kyuubi?" Naruto was hesitant, after all, in front of him stood the towering beast of chakra and malice and darkness that had given him hell to pay for half of his life, and that was the reason his soul had been scarred to levels he himself deemed highly impossible to repair.

**No, I'm the tooth fairy. What else do you expect me to be? **A pair of enormous red eyes appeared in the pitch-black darkness on the other side of the gate, the tone of the voice was caustic, to say the least, as it spoke grievously and with a menacing growl.

"So…why are we speaking?" Naruto had no clue why he was there…did he die?

**Because I hate you, kid. I now have to give you some of my chakra, or you'll actually die. ** As he said that, matter of fact, Naruto let the new of his probable death loom in the air for a moment; he kind of felt…relief. He shook his head hard, no, there were people who waited for him, who'd come and save him. There were people who loved him, called him friend. How could he betray them for his selfish whims?

"Great…I suppose?" What was he meant to say? That he'd prefer to die?

**There's only a problem. The seal hasn't weakened enough, so it will take time and it *will* hurt you, it will be unbearable, and you will wish you had died... unless you actually remove this piece of parchment here, and then I'll come and help you painlessly. You don't want pain, do you?**

Naruto was actually tempted to avoid the pain, but between being tempted and actually doing it, there was a difference. He had to mentally thank B for having explained it to him, or he'd actually fall for his trick, as the fox hadn't given much of a word about him taking control of him if he let loose the symbol, or actually destroying him when the fox's chakra would enter his own chakra coils, and a nine tail demons' chakra was far more than his own chakra coils could handle.

"Give me the pain and let's be done with it." He muttered.

**You sure? You could…oh, he told you, didn't you?**

"That he did." Naruto nodded.

**Well, can you fault me for trying to leave a brat's body?**

"I'd be pretty pissed to and being enchained and enslaved without a way out…like I am now." Naruto pointed that out.

**The thing on your arm will have to go. Nice thing is that while it *will* discharge on you, you're already knocked out cold, so I'll overcharge it…oh, if I give you too much, please do think angry thoughts and hateful words, it helps controlling the chakra.**

"…why do you think it's going to work if B already told me of the tricks of the tailed beasts?"

**A Fox can dream.**

**Author's notes**

**Saddening chapters *will* come around (much to your dismay, I'm sure, as I've got something planned that will tear your hearts out...)**


	3. Confrontation

Third chapter

Pain was something familiar, lack of pain wasn't. Naruto actually opened his eyes half-expecting the demon's words to become the truth: that he'd be foaming from his mouth for the agonizing and hellish pain. He was surprised, instead, when he saw the contraption on his right arm starting to glow red, then beginning to creak. He kind of expected a warning of sorts, before it tore apart, something like a hidden voice in his mind, a yell at him to protect his eyes, anything. Still it seemed that his relationship with the Kyuubi was going to be a tacit one. He wasn't talking to him, and Naruto clearly didn't want to talk to the beast again. He had a feeling that between a young eleven years old boy and a nine-tailed demon clearly older than him by centuries, he'd be the one to get conned. Still, he had to stick by the principle of not tearing apart the seal. It wasn't like B and the Hachibi, those two were friends, and once, in the waterfall of truth, in Kumo, he had even met the Eight-tails. That's where he had learned not how to harness the power of the Kyuubi, but how to at the very least keep it in check, so that his chakra control, utterly horrible till then, had sky-rocketed in the next week of training. Quality over quantity was good: quality with quantity would have been preferable.

The noise of the chakra absorber reaching its physical limit were barely audible, but being in the same prison cell as the spiked blond boy made it easy to pick them up for Yukie, who stared at her fellow prisoner and his broken legs, with a slightly sympathetic look. Maybe that fool of a Sandayu Asama had hired Kumo ninja to free her, and take over once more the Snow country. It was a futile attempt: she hadn't wanted to come over this damn-hateful country, which had taken everything precious from her, but had been forced to by the movie director and the contract she had signed. Obviously, the hope of getting through the entire movie thing without attracting her uncle's attentions had been for nothing. She had been captured, the movie crew had obviously run away for their safety, and she had given up her penchant to Doto. She was going to leave that prison the moment her thrice-kami be damned uncle would find the *Weapon* he was talking about, but she wasn't hoping on that, probably, he'd have her executed. So she was sulking, when the Kumo boy, his legs broken, had been thrown in, the same Kumo boy who now had slowly opened her eyes and was doing his best to keep the contraption away from his face, as, with a final creak, it broke off, with a small puff of smoke.

"Thank Kami it didn't explode." Naruto muttered.

**I dosed the chakra into it. It could have exploded, had I rushed it.** The snarling voice in the back of his head muttered.

"Oh for Kami's sakes no." Good, so now Naruto had a voice in his head. As if the day couldn't get any worse than that.

**You accepted my chakra in your coils, should I have mentioned the 96% of possibility of this happening?** The fox demon was grinning, actually, he could have simply rushed the chakra to have the boy's right hand explode, but then he'd have to do with a container who wasn't battle-proficient, with only one arm. Sure, he could train to overturn the weakness, but why break a perfectly functional tool, if you can avoid it?

"Yeah, you should have." Naruto muttered once more, rolling his eyes over, as he gritted his teeth, this time, he actually felt pain, as his bones re-aligned themselves, the wounds closing, the infections being battle off and the muscles getting back into their normal shapes.

Yukie saw small tendrils of red chakra move through the boy's body, aiming at his grievously injured legs, and mending them back into an acceptable state, one which she could, at the very least, stare without turning green. The strange soliloquy of the boy had her intrigued, too, but she decided not to be too picky on it, a lot of ninjas had those strange things, battle scars, they called them.

"So…are you going to get me out of here?" She snapped at him, maybe she shouldn't have, after all he was someone who had been trained to kill, as a ninja, and furthermore maybe the boy being weaponless wasn't meaningless, maybe he faked being easy to capture just to get her out of there.

"I don't know." Naruto replied, looking at her with his clear blue sky eyes, "You're not exactly friendly, and I'd rather not be weighted down if I have to escape from this place."

"Didn't Asama-san pay your…team to safe me?" Yukie was hesitant now, maybe the brat was simply a brat, he still had his headband protector from Kumo, but then again, he could have picked it up somewhere. Maybe he was a ninja from Kumo, but just not hired by Asama.

"Who?" the question, asked innocently, made Yukie's heart plummet, no, no way out of there because of being paid. This boy didn't care or didn't seem to care, his eyes taking a suddenly steel in them, as he stiffened.

Naruto heard something moving, deep in the corridor, a noise of a key in a keyhole, of chains rattling, of a door slamming open, then, the appearance of a man, with a horribly angry face on him, long black hair that reached his shoulders, with cold grey eyes and a wide nose. Really, his nose was something out of the fairy tales, about how horrible a nose could grow, if it grew out wrong. Two guards were with him, both had their hands on a pair of chains, and some manacles.

"Seems like the key works only with your blood, Koyuki. Very well, I'll have to bring you out for a stroll, and maybe this Kumo ninja here will come too, just to make sure he doesn't pull anything strange."

"Doto! Just let me go! You can keep this damn country for yourself if you want it so badly!" Koyuki snapped back at her uncle. Naruto had a slightly puzzled look on his face: didn't the girl say her name was Yukie?

"Just to let another Sandayu come around and bring you back here? With you dead, that pathetic excuse of a rebellion will finally be over. Now, grab them," as the door of the cell opened up, Naruto, who had silently kept both his hands behind his back, dashed.

He didn't dash to save Koyuki, or to disable the guards. He jumped on the wall to the side of the cell, and then jumped again, right fist ready, catching Doto by surprise as the fist connected with the man's incredibly enormous nose. Really, it occupied a damn half of his face!

He didn't stop to fight: he was a ninja, not a samurai. He kept dashing towards the exit, glad that they hadn't closed the door of the prison's cells.

"Go after him!" Doto practically screeched, as he grabbed with strength the arm of Koyuki, sending his minions to do his job.

The two guards grabbed a kunai in both their hands, and then dashed off, to pursue the blond spiked guy, who had closed the prison's door behind him, the iron prison door.

As one of the two guard grabbed a hold of the door's handle, sparks of electricity jolted through the man's body, sending him on a set of high pierced shrieks as he finally managed to remove his hand from the door, falling backwards, twitching for the electricity still running through his body.

The second guard stood back, surprised, before Doto, rolling his eyes over, raised his right hand at the corridor in front of him, not caring for the useless fallen guard and the other one who was still on her feet.

"Bird-snake-monkey-horse-dog, **Hyōton: Kokuryū Bōfūsetsu**", as the Ice Release, black dragon blizzard spewed forward from the ice that adorned the prison's wall, it crashed against the door and the two unlucky guards, killing them but at the same time sending the door to crash loudly against the opposite wall.

"Move pathetic excuse of a woman." As Doto snarled at Koyuki, he started pulling her, towards the train's hangar in his fortress.

Koyuki did try to rebel, but he was simply too strong, while she was simply too frail to do much, except whimper and follow, though she did try to hit him a couple of time, her knuckles hurt when they impacted against something underneath the man's vest, an armor of sorts, probably.

*Scene Break*

"I've GOT A CHAKRA SIGNATURE!" C actually yelled that out, to hell with this country's ninjas, as Yugito and B were more than enough to handle them.

"Where is the damn brat! I'm killing him this time!" Yugito literally roared, there was a mixture of anger, anxiety, but also a hint of relief in knowing that her adopted brother was fine. He'd still get slapped to death, then hugged to death, then slapped once more.

"The bro's gotta go!" as B finished his rapping he punched straight through a snow ninja, sending him to crash against a neatly pile of other snow ninjas.

"Didn't they know we were passing through?" Darui queried, as he electrocuted a couple more of snow ninjas, after having happily doused them with a water jutsu.

"He's a couple of miles from here, to the west!" C added.

"How did he cover that much distance in less than an hour?" Yugito was perplexed, but shook her head, as she sent a couple of scorched enemies onto the big-pile of defeated ninjas.

"Doesn't matter, yo-ho!

We have to move to save a Bro!" As B gave a knuckle straight into the teeth of the last remaining snow ninja, the rest of the group nodded.

As they dashed, though, Yugito heard C muttering something to Darui, who nodded.

Why was Darui with them to begin with? He had said he had a mission in the same direction as them, and had to tag along, but, Raikage's orders, he wasn't to speak about what it was about. The rest of them had shrugged, Darui was Darui after all, he certainly felt it as a pain, not being able to speak about it, and maybe he was the most unnerved one of the situation.

Still, he had decided to tag along to watch Naruto train and he was probably wasting time to go and save him, even though he actually could have already been on his way. Well, the blond boy was kind of the mascot of the team, and of Kumo, half of the boy's energy were directed in helping the villagers, and the other half in mercilessly prank the bossy ones. In Kumo, there was probably one person who outright hated the boy, and that was more because that person in particular hated B, and Naruto was a sort of limb of the bigger Jinchuuriki.

C assumed a perplexed expression, after a moment of dashing, starting to swiftly change its course, steering right.

"He's moving fast…really fast," was all he muttered.

"How much fast are we speaking about?" Yugito was actually perplexed, as a thought crossed both hers and B's mind.

"Don't worry Cat: I doubt the boy has gone berserk." B replied, reading into the worried face of the Nibi Jinchuuriki.

Yugito didn't reply, but she hoped that too.

The clouds, high above them, began turning dark, as if tuned to the thoughts that were crossing the Kumo Ninjas minds, and a snowstorm suddenly started becoming a reality, as the first snow crystals started silently falling downwards. A loud piercing noise caught the attention of the group, mere minutes later, and the shinobis stopped on their tracks, seeing how a train was actually moving on the snow, without tracks, and seemed all too keen on running over them it they stayed where they were.

"Let me guess. Naruto's in trouble and he's in there." Yugito muttered.

"Stand back my fellows!

Let my fist the enemy mellow!

I'm da Hachibi Jinchuuriki!

No train will stop my…" as B rapped, he slowly brought his right hand behind, as the others jumped a bit backward, not wanting to believe, but knowing full well it was the case, that B was going to stop that train barehanded.

*Scene break*

Naruto just cursed his luck. It had to either be that, or Karma. Probably the latter, he promised to himself that, if he ever found another girl in need of a hand, he'd help her out. Sure, he had thought that a dark, but wide place would be the perfect spot to wait for rescue, until the lights had turned on, and he had dashed to the safest place, which turned out to be the top of a train.

That to Naruto looked nothing more than a metallic contraption of enormous size, and that was damn cold.

Especially for him who was barely in a t-shirt and his boxers. The only thing he thanked Kami for was that his forehead protector was still with him where hidden inside was a small pocket knife, the emergency weapon, and that he was used to the cold, so his few hairs were actually thicker than the norm, not enough to avoid him muttering curses every time a bare part of his body touched with the cold surface.

He saw the color leave his hands, that were turning blue-ish with time, but couldn't do much, as the train began actually moving, forcing him to hold on to a metal bar as the train rolled outside, drifting the snow apart. Then, with the wind slapping at his face, he began to focus. He could at the very least try and avoid getting his face frozen by the wind, if he concentrated enough, he was sure he could pull something. The first thought went to use a wind jutsu, of which he unluckily knew only one, which would serve no purpose, as he'd have to clap his hands, lose the grab on the railing of the train, and plummet in the middle of the cold white snow till death would claim him, or the wolves, or Yugito-oneechan…thinking back, maybe the wolves weren't bad.

He had faith in C's capacities to sense him, but he didn't know how far he was from them, nor how much C couldn't actually be precise in pinpointing him, especially now that he was moving that fast. He could feel his hands starting to go numb, a surprise it hadn't happened before.

**You could ask for help.** There it was again, that damn snotty fox.

**I am not snotty. I am the Kyuubi, and you, kit, are in need of a hand. **What did he want? Hot ramen, yeah, that was what he wanted, it was nice, it was warm, and it had been the first warm thing he had ever eaten. He still recalled that fondly.

**Typical, instead of asking for some chakra you think about ramen. I hate you, kid.**

"The sentiment is… it's … well… the same." Naruto fumbled, his tongue felt dry, maybe he could lick some ice off the train without letting go?

**Oh yes, please, like you know what it's like to be chained to someone for the rest of your life.**

"I was…chained…once. For a long time…I understand what…what it means…to lack freedom. That's why I have a… a dream." He had to keep himself awake, better to talk with the fox than close his eyes and fall off.

**You still had a choice though: you could have rebelled, you could have told them to leave you alone or you could have left the orphanage.** The fox was kind of enjoying smashing down all the words of the kid: it had been a while since she had last talked with someone.

"I was…I want…I'm going to be…the Raikage. Then…" Naruto started slowly clenching his teeth, as he pulled his arm forward, in an effort to get to the side of the train without falling, "I'm going to…protect everyone…who cared for me," with a strong pull, he reached the side of the train, just in time to see something that made him pale even more.

"Oh Kami, I hate karma." The Hachibi's right fist connected with the front of the train, and as B in his Bijuu's form slowly was pushed backward, so did the train come to an halt, but not before sending Naruto flying forward, screaming to the top of his lungs.

As he was about to fall on the ground, he groaned, sure that, with his luck, he'd end up hitting a rock hidden under the snow, or even worse, some kunai forgotten there from a previous battle or war.

He closed his eyes, readying himself for the impact against the hard surface, which never came, as he landed head first in something bouncy, and, at the very least, warm.

"Oh Kami he's as cold as an icicle! He'll freeze my tentacle like that! BRRRR" The Hachibi actually liked to jest, as he slowly deposited the nearly frozen to death boy into the hands of Yugito, who proceeded to grab a blanket and envelop him in it, while thanking the fact that the boy had left his bag to them at camp, and he had a spare set of clothes in it.

The train, stopped on his tracks, had a couple of really scared snow ninjas coming out, followed by a man in a strange black chakra armor, who was holding a kunai in front of a really scared girl, and the lot had no idea, none at all, of what was happening there.

"Kumo ninjas! You will not stop me from achieving the Perfect Weapon!" as Doto yelled that, Kunai near the throat of Yukie, for the first time, an evil and dark aura shrouded the area.

Yukie was afraid, more because she saw the boy that had been captured back with the Kumo ninjas, being handled with care, as it seemed, to her eyes at least, that he had simply gone and get reinforcements to then help her. That misunderstanding actually made her start to think that, if a boy went as far as sacrificing himself to the cold, just to save her, maybe she should have remained into the snow country as its Daimyo.

Yugito turned to see Naruto's blue eyes replaced by dark, red ones, as his gaze was fixed on the man and his words, his canines teeth strangely elongated, his whisker's marks more pronounced, but more than that, his killer intent, so intense it nearly made Darui display something different from boredom on his face. C felt sick, feeling the vile chakra that seemed to be pouring out of the boy.

"You should have chosen a better choice of words…" was all that B muttered, before calling back the Hachibi.

"Tell hello to the kid from me!" was all the eight tails said, before re-entering B's body.

"What is it? You think you can scare me, huh!" Doto smirked, it was clear those were only show-offs, he had no idea what a Jinchuuriki was, too busy living a luxurious life and searching for the weapon, but, worst of all, not knowing that he was already dead.

The pocket knife, the *emergency* weapon of Naruto, was in truth made of a chakra metal, which reacted strongly to elemental affinities, thanks to Naruto being a natural Wind User, he could actually increase his pocket's knife reach with chakra. In his un-reasoning state, where he simply let his emotions wash over him, as he was too tired to think straight, someone had said a pair of words that had made him click.

The next moment he was no longer in the winter blanket that Yugito had given him to warm himself, he didn't need that warmth. He needed another type of warmth: the warmth of fresh blood gushing out from a freshly made wound. As his pocket knife slashed into Doto's throat, having Naruto actually appeared behind him in a flicker of pure speed, and nothing else, blood exploded like a fountain, as it sprayed all over the white snow, changing its color to crimson. What was worse, was that nobody stopped the boy from actually tearing apart Doto's body, blood suddenly covering the boy in various parts, as he finally took his time to turn his gaze, still red, around, seeing the girl, Yukie, she had lied to him, but she was a worthless pray. The Kumo ninja were his friends, yes.

The snow ninja on the other side? As they cowered, and some made steps to turn around and start running, Naruto was already on them, laughing maniacally in glee.

He needed their blood and he needed their death, for he was a monster who could feel emotions only in slaughter!

Darui looked expressionless at the slaughter, sighing.

"Sorry you're seeing this." He muttered to the girl, who nodded by habit, her face pale as she had brought her hands to her mouth.

"You're Yukie Fujikaze, the famous actress, right? I watched some of your films." Yugito whispered, moving closer to the girl. As Yukie wanted to scream, ask them what was wrong with them for not stopping the boy, she looked into the other woman's eyes and said nothing, as the eyes of that woman were as burdened with grief as those of the other Kumo ninjas, barring those of the big muscled man, who had shades on.

"Naruto!" The yell snapped him out of his mental state. It was his name, right? Naruto, not monster, or demon. Naruto. Who had called him? Turning his head around, he saw B, his uncle, stare at him, and gesture him to move closer to him. He turned for a moment, looking at the crying snow ninja whom he had broken the legs, in an ironic meaning of what they had dared to do to him.

He wanted to give the finishing blow, but again, he was called.

"Naruto! Enough is enough." Well, he couldn't always have everything from life. He turned around again, walking slowly till he was in front of B who looked back at him.

"Naruto," B whispered gently, one last time.

Naruto stared back, his eyes jolting to life as he looked around, surprised as he recollected his thoughts.

"Did I…do this?" he whispered, sadness appearing over his entire face.

"Well Bro you've packed a punch,

Taught a lesson to the bunch!

Nothing's bad,

No need to be sad!" As B rapped, smiling, he brought his right fist forward.

"Come'on bro, don't let a bro hangin!"

Naruto smiled meekly, raising his own right fist, and fist-bumping.

"Good to have ya back!"

"Ehm…uhm…" Yukie didn't know what to say, so, she resorted to do the most polite thing she could think of, "thank you for saving me!" she bowed, slightly blushing, while she looked with lost-eyes at the *manly* form of B.

Yugito rolled her eyes over, grabbing the blanket once more, and surrounding Naruto with it.

"You are so going to get punished, when we get a moment of rest."

"Yugito-oneechan! That wasn't my fault!" Naruto pouted, making his best puppy eyes, already forgetting about the slaughter, or the dead bodies, around them.

"You didn't check your surroundings, it was your fault." C pointed that out.

"Yeah, definitively," Darui added nodding.

"Well then, let's bring the missy somewhere safe,

Let us take a nice café,

Let us go somewhere warmer,

We've still have a mission on our roaster!" B rapped, earning himself a perplexed look from Naruto.

"Roster and roaster are different things, bro!" he stated.

"Damn!" was all that B said, while the others sweat-dropped, before either grinning or chuckling.

*scene break*

As it turned out, as the ninjas of Kumo left a couple of days later than planned, the now recalled *Land of Spring*, Yukie's real name was indeed Koyuki, furthermore, she was actually the daughter of the Daimyo, thus making her the new Daimyo, and the *perfect weapon* a name that no-one ever dared pronounce again, was in truth a spring generator. A thing that made Naruto happier, as he spent the days resting and recuperating from the harsh cold temperatures that had left him numb at the extremities of his limbs, that, and the repeated battering that Yugito had inflicted upon him, guilty of having made them all worried.

The ninjas had gently passed on the fact that Koyuki had misunderstood their intentions, figuring out that it was far better to have a Daimyo on their good side, then not.

B chuckled like an idiot for most of the rest days, thinking about how the Raikage was going to stop drinking sake, when he realized that a team led by him had actually managed to bring an alliance to Kumo from the Land of Snow.

As they departed, their next stop turned out to be Yugakure, a hot spring village.

They reached the not walled hot spring village by the end of the fourth day of travel, and by then, Naruto had become quite able in delivering near-fatal amounts of electricity into his hands, a fact of which he was pretty proud.

"Yeah, if only you actually knew how to discharge it all without having it linger around," Yugito scoffed, especially because, being the only one with long hair, albeit tied in a ponytail, it made her tail stick upwards, a really, really funny fact, that made her start to think that Naruto was doing it on purpose, rather than by accident.

As Naruto let sparks run across his hands, from one to the other, he began chuckling, he'd never admit it, but he kind of enjoyed knowing that he could move Yugito's hair up and down by simply increasing or decreasing the chakra poured in the jutsu. These were the type of Jutsus he enjoyed the most: it wasn't much about control, which still helped, but about quantity. The more chakra, the better the technique turned out to be. So, in a certain way, it always resulted in a perfect Jutsu, he only needed more practice.

A slap on the head later and they were taking rooms in the only inn of the small village of Yugakure, which obviously had separated hot springs for males and females.

"Be nice, and don't peek, especially you C." Yugito harshly muttered, as she entered the female side of the hot baths, a nice soak before dinner wasn't bad at all.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, looking at C who shook his head with a loud sigh.

"Just because I'm a sensor ninja doesn't mean I have to peek." He muttered, feigning offense, as he entered the male side of the baths.

B grinned as he followed, Naruto and Darui behind, and, after washing off the grime and dirt with a couple of buckets of water, they actually entered the hot spring baths, that were separated from the female side by a set of bamboo stalks, tied together by rope.

They weren't alone in the hot springs, as an elderly fifty something year old man was scribbling down something, giving his back to the Kumo ninjas, and every now and then chuckling something. He wore his long spiked white hair in a strange pony tail that resembled more an otter's tail. The wounds on his back actually made him a probable ninja, or ex-ninja, but being weaponless, like the rest of the Kumo ninja, didn't classify him as a menace.

"So gaki, how's it going with the Raiton Techniques?" as Darui queried, Naruto chuckled and was about to demonstrate it, when C grabbed his hand with a sigh.

"We are soaked in the water, please, refrain from physically showing off."

"Ahah! Come on, a little bit of electricity never killed someone!" B laughed.

"IF YOU TRY ANYTHING I'M COMING OVER TO KILL YOU!" a female infuriated voice yelled from the other side of the baths.

"Bro, we got Yugito-oneechan angry…she's going to have wrinkles." Naruto replied with a grin.

"I HEARD YOU BOY!" followed by a set of snarls and growls.

Jiraiya sighed, as he shook his head and kept writing his next novel. He had been following a trail left by his spy network that was more than cold, dead cold. Thankfully Minato had closed down Root and grabbed their mission scrolls, then, coupled with knowing Naruto's codename, *Monster*, he had discovered his first and only mission for Root outside of Konoha, to kill an elderly lady to press an anti-Konoha councilor of Oto into silence. Ruthless as Danzo was, the kid had barely been six years old by then, and already, reading all the notes partaking his training, he had shivered. At age six, Naruto was more a ninja than the rest of the academy graduates. Jiraiya had no doubt the boy was still alive, though he had no clue where he was, as the training, the brutal training imposed on him had made him more than able to fend off even the slickest of brigands, some things done on him were clearly inhuman, and he couldn't help but grit his teeth every time he had read the scroll, to try and find some peculiar characteristic that would help in tracking him down. From the first mission, he had actually gone to Oto, where, at a great risk, he had managed to come to the understanding that only a group of Kumo ninja was in the area, and thus, following a really fragile looking trail, he had decided to make his way till Kumo, hoping the fact that he was wearing an *Oil* forehead protector would avoid the people connecting him to Minato, and thus to Konoha. The only problem being the Raikage, who knew him too well, having even clashed against him in an effort to help Minato out, though it usually ended in a one versus one between Konoha's yellow flash and the Raikage, both fighters of inhuman speed.

He knew for a fact that the boy had been subjected to atrocious tortures, thus he should have numerous scars or scar tissue, then, he knew he had the whisker's marks on his face, blue eyes, and resembled a mini-Minato. He also knew, albeit that was a really old knowledge that he referred to himself as Monster or Demon.

As he kept on scribbling, he realized someone was perching to his side, not sensing any threat, he supposed it had to be the boy that had previously yelled and been yelled at from the other side, who also was proficient with Raiton techniques, so, maybe it had to be a really impressive Chuunin, since normally Genins weren't able to use natural affinity jutsus until they got a firmer grasp of chakra control. He still didn't turn around though, since, when inspiration took him, he had to write till the end.

The boy, after a while, swam back to his group, and Jiraiya just barely looked at him with the corner of his eye, blond wet hair, no scars on his back. He did, however, turn around completely when he realized the other ones were eying him pretty puzzled.

"Hey that's the Toad Hermit!

Yo old pervert!" Killer B was the Raikage's brother, and that much, was known even by the dumbest of Kumo, and thus was something that the old toad hermit knew.

"B wasn't it? You're on a mission with your brother?" Jiraiya was perplexed, because he didn't think the Raikage would actually leave Kumo unless it was a diplomatic mission, and none of his spies had told him anything on that regards.

"He knows Otou-san?" The blond wet-haired boy spoke then, turning around to face the Hermit, who gasped, but since his gasp was visible, C and Darui actually tensed up, their gaze getting darker. It didn't take much for the air to suddenly *spark* with tension.

The Toad sage was no fool, however, as he connected the *Yugito-oneechan* to *Yugito Nii* the Jinchuuriki of the Nibi, who was probably already on alert after B's rap, which had come at a higher than normal tone. Still, the blond boy, with blue eyes, and whisker marks, who resembled a miniature Minato, stood there, on the side of the Kumo ninjas, staring at the man with a perplexed look.

"Yeah, my nephew here,

He's a strong Gaki, so we call us Bros

We can kick asses, and save Daimyos!" as B rapped once more, he stared at Jiraiya with an expression that pretty much went: *Try anything and it will end in blood*.

"That's one of the legendary Sannins, Jiraiya-sennin, he was the teacher of the Fourth Hokage." C muttered, as Naruto slightly felt a bit of shiver in his spine, but why? He was in a hot spring and the water was warm, as he instinctively clung to his uncle's side, he stared with a wide-eyed expression at the old man, who had intrigued him because he was managing to write on paper without wetting it.

"NARUTO! YOU'VE BEEN IN THE WATER TOO MUCH! OUT NOW!" Yugito snapped from the other side of the baths, as they could hear her quite clearly growling as she made her way out of the female side of the baths.

"Go gaki! Even the shinigami frowns when Yugito-chan is angry!" as B grinned at the boy, he actually eased him back on his feet, and pushed him gently on the back, out of the water, and back in the changing room.

Naruto silently obeyed with a nod, drying himself and then moving out, just to have his hand grabbed tightly by Yugito, who proceeded to bring him to the room they'd share.

"That boy belongs to…" Jiraiya spoke slowly, but was stopped by C's murderous glare.

"You're starting the sentence wrong. He belongs to no-one, and certainly not to a pathetical excuse of a village which has torn his soul to shreds!" the murderous hiss was something that would make even snakes proud.

"How did you get him?" the Sannin spoke slowly, he was weaponless, but so were the Kumo ninjas. The only problem being that, while both sides were soaked, one side knew how to do Raiton Jutsus and had an entire village skilled in it, and the Hachibi, and the Nibi would probably barge in, and they were four and he was alone, the odds weren't in his favor that night.

"Why do you care?" Darui spoke next, while B simply stood silent, he was probably waiting for a wrong move to barge in.

"I'm that child's godfather." That wasn't a lie, Minato *had* wanted him to be the godfather of both his kids, even though one was meant never to know who his father was.

"So you trained him into calling himself Monster? I thought you were a pervert, not a heartless bastard." C spat out words that seemed like venom, more than simple air vibrations on the vocal cords.

"That…that wasn't me. I never met the kid before today." Jiraiya's voice was a bit saddened by that, maybe if he had been at the very least present, in the other kid's life, this might not have happened, but he had first to make sure Naruto wouldn't end up choosing Anbu, and thus ending in Danzo's grasp, a thing which had, never the less, happened.

"Never the less, you weren't there when he tried to slit his wrists, for having failed to do a simple chakra control exercise, and nearly breaking his bones from the efforts he made to try and reach B's strength, because he didn't want to be a weight. You were not there the time when he curled into a ball and cried when he saw a black-jack, nor when he went on rampages every time he heard the word Konoha or *Perfect Weapon*. You weren't there then, and you have no right on him now." Darui spoke harshly, making the Sannin's eye bulge at the amount of information, of sad information, that he didn't know about.

"If Konoha tries something funny, know that Kumo will not sit idly by and watch: he's the Raikage's son, if not by blood, certainly by spirit and soul, and his dream is to become the next Raikage of Kumo, and no-one, especially not people who have abused and berated him, will ever have a word on his choices." C actually kept the threatening tone and atmosphere of Darui, a feat which few could actually replicate.

"I…I understand." That was all the Sannin was able to say, at the moment he had a too big of a disadvantage to say or do anything else, sure, he could probably summon Gamabunta, grab the kid with luck and make a mad dash into Konoha, but even then he wasn't sure how the council would take him coming back with a really mad Hachibi and Nibi behind, and the Raikage and his army coming right next.

"We are going on a mission in the land of Waves, so we are going to pass through land of fire, you'd do the boy a favor not saying anything to Hokage until he's finished his mission…it's his first mission, and I don't want to see the kid having to go back for problems that might ensue, he'd give himself the fault, and it took years to get him to open up." B spoke quietly, and without rapping. A fact that made Jiraiya actually cringe inside, because he knew that usually, that meant he was about to come with a really serious dead threat.

"If anything happens to the boy, be it Anbu's, Konoha ninjas, or you the culprits, know that I won't stop until the Hachibi will be trashing through the entirety of the land of Fire, and the Hachibi is on the same wavelength of thoughts as me. Did I make myself clear?" Jiraiya nodded, gulping down.

"Good. We've been in the water enough." With that, the Kumo ninjas left the Sannin alone.

"And now what do I do?" Jiraiya muttered, he could send a toad summon back to Minato, warn him, and then that would probably send him ballistic, then send the council ballistic, then Danzo on a war path, and would probably end up with Kushina wanting her boy back and a war being waged over the kid. The kid seemed happy and with friends, maybe he would warn Minato only, in person, after discovering just how well the kid had been treated in Kumo. Yeah, he'd do that, a couple of months more wouldn't harm anyone, Kushina waited years…that didn't stay well with his heart, but what else could he do?

*Scene break*

It had been strange, how B had insisted on still taking guard turns, and handing them out to everyone but him, still, Naruto had shrugged, thinking it was just his Bro acting paranoid and safe rather than risky. More strangely, while they had taken two rooms, in the end it had resulted with Darui being the only one to sleep alone, while He, Yugito, B and C had slept together in another room. Something about Darui having to wake up and leave earlier than the rest of them, but still.

The next morning, they had departed among nervousness, without Darui. There was some strange tension in the air, something which Naruto wasn't able to get his hands on, but that was still there.

"The meeting point is just a couple of hours ahead, so…Naruto, stop here for a moment." Yugito spoke softly, patting at a rock near the side of the road, where the boy sat obediently, before hearing the young woman ask him.

"So…do you prefer Brown or Black?"

"Black," he muttered, though he didn't understand why he had been given a dark blue shirt and a red jacket, and his trousers had been replaced with dark green ones, all in one fell swoop, as he had been handed a fake Katana on his back, at least, they had told him it was fake, and had then proceeded to swap his beige leather pouch and bandolier for an utility belt.

He felt his hair being touched by Yugito, and something being plastered on it, hair-color, a thing he was familiar with from his…he shivered slightly, preferring to forget about it.

Then it was the lenses time.

"Green or Brown?" Yugito asked him again.

"Purple," Naruto replied without hesitation which earned him a small grin from Yugito, whose favorite color *was* purple.

"I'll give you Green, you flatterer," then, everyone stopped to admire the woman's hand-work.

"This is special ops hair color and lenses, they will naturally degrade in a matter of weeks, and they won't be easily removed. The hair color is water resistant and only alcohol can remove it, while the eye lenses can withstand a moderate amount of shock before actually falling out." Yugito explained it to Naruto, who nodded, he already had some…experience with it, and he shivered once more.

"Why is it necessary?" he asked, perplexed.

"Naruto…you know you are the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, right?" B said, getting in front of the boy, who nodded.

"Now, I'm going to say that word, and I need you to be a strong Bro and take it without flinching, got it?" Naruto meekly nodded once more.

"You know you were of Konoha," a shiver, down his spine, the memory of leaf-head protectors, the insults, the mobs, the kicks, "and as such, when we meet the other leaf ninjas, who Tazuna-san tasked to protect him till our meeting point, you must hide your real self, at least before Darui-san goes and does his mission, something he was personally tasked to do by the Raikage." B muttered slowly.

"You understand?" he queried, once more.

Naruto nodded, he had a saddened look on his expression, one of guilt, but B ruffled his hair and grinned.

"Now little bro,

Don't be down,

You know it's not your fault,

That I was born a clown,

I'll make you smile in the blink of an eye,

Like when I throw in Yugito's face a pie!" as he rapped, a nervous tick mark appeared on Yugito's face.

"So it was you!" she snapped, slapping him, and B taking the blow, albeit he could have, maybe, dodged it.

C smiled, and then concentrated.

"Two people, going to the meeting point: one is a civilian class, while the other…is probably high-chuunin or low-Jounin level."

"Probably didn't have Genin teams to spare," Yugito shrugged, "let's get going now."

"Wait, what about my name?" Naruto queried, as he began to follow the rest of the team.

"We thought you didn't want to change it…" it had taken days to get him over his name problem, and even then, there were time where he slipped up on writing exams, writing things like *It* instead of *I*.

"But this is a mission, so it's only a codename. It's different." Naruto replied.

"Well then…how about, N?" B queried.

"Why not Yugao?" Yugito muttered.

"N? I like N!" Naruto, now *N* said, he always forced himself to smile, or exaggerate his emotions, when he had something bothering him, in that case, the fact that his team had to go to extra-lengths to cover for him and his past.

They came to a halt on the border between the land of fire and the land of waves, with C bringing them to a halt, as they had reached the meeting point location.

After a moment, two persons appeared on the road, an old man with a sake bottle in one hand, and a strange hat, with a white towel on his shoulders, and a red-haired woman, who sported an ANBU mask on the back of her head, her green eyes fixated in front of the road, and to the group of Kumo ninjas.

"Well Tazuna-san, seems like we have reached the Kumo ninjas, although, maybe, I should speak with them for a moment?" Tazuna actually nodded, as the woman moved closer, making Naruto visibly tense up, a fact that Yugito, her female senses tingling, didn't miss at all.

"My name is Kushina Uzumaki," preferring not to use her Namikaze surname, as she still was debating wherever divorce would impact on her daughter's mental health or not, "and I was tasked with protecting Tazuna-san till here. Although I must warn you that the mission is not a simple D-level one, as there are ninjas attempting on the life of Tazuna-san...while I intend on keeping protecting Tazuna till the land of waves, I had to inform you, as you might no longer wish to take part in the mission." Kushina silently thought that the more time she spent far from Minato, the less she risked getting arrested for cruelty in murder.

B scoffed, but still he had to think about the Gaki, who…

"I'm afraid of no ninja! We came here to do a mission, and we do a mission!" Naruto yelled, raising his right fist in the air.

"Oh, and who's this young ninja here?" Kushina queried, perplexed, while the thought of a group of Genins being old was probable, since Genins exams happened once every five year, and not every group could pass, the only reason for why there was such a difference of age between group members was that, either two hadn't graduated in a long time from the Kumo academy, or one of their team-mates had died and the academy class had even numbers for the usual team selection. At least, she was basing this info off Konoha's system, while in Kumo it wouldn't matter.

"I'm *N* and I'm going to be the future Raikage!" Naruto yelled out proudly.

"Nice to meet you N," Kushina smiled at such a display of excitement, "I hope your dreams comes true, dattebayo!"

"It might be too dangerous though." Yugito muttered, looking protectively over Naruto, who looked back at her with his puppy eyes of doom *tm*.

"Fine!" the blond Jinchuuriki rolled her eyes in acceptance of the fact that no, she couldn't just snag him away and cuddle him to death in a corner, as Matabi wanted to.

"Yo well then we're in!

Let the rap begin!" As B started rapping, C sighed.

"I am C, this is B, N already presented himself, and she is Yugito." As C handled the presentations, Kushina nodded.

"I'm the super bridge builder Tazuna! Let's get going then!" and with that, the group started moving.

Unknown to them, Kushina's mind was racing, because, really, who wouldn't know the brother of the Raikage, as the Hachibi, and who wouldn't know Yugito, as the Nibi? And why would they accept a D-rank mission with ease? Especially when they both had completed, according to the bingo book, A-level missions too, before going on a retirement phase for a while? It was strange, especially because, while she could easily place C at a Jounin level, on the kid she had no clue. He simply *was* too strange to be part of the group, and somewhere, tucked away, there was something else nagging at her, something about the boy's whisker marks.

On the other hand, the Kyuubi chuckled in silence, humans always were that interesting? He wouldn't know, because he usually squished them down with ease. Still, if he could manage to get out, just enough to have a little chat with the red-head, the same woman he had seen once in the company of the fourth Hokage, but at the time cradled with babies yet to birth, the same night he attacked Konoha, then maybe he'd give some fun to the atmosphere, and maybe, he'd bring the boy close to the pits of despair, close enough to push him through, and have him finally give in and free him! Then, he could take over the boy's body, and use it to bring forth even more slaughter. Yeah, he'd do that. All in due time.

**Author's notes.**

**I promise the next chapter, or the one after, will be really heart-breaking. I'll probably write it with tissues nearby, as I'm still debating wherever strangling one own muse is a crime or not.**

**I'm still *not* sure who to pair Naruto with, I'm not a fan of Harems, (well, I'm a fan of reading them, but not writing them), and Minato-bashing will come by later. And well, the Kyuubi *is* cunning, I mean, I don't know why in the Naruto manga he's a sort of easy to read fellow or something, he's got more age and tricks under his belt than anyone, and yet he's always *used*, he should *use* Naruto, not the opposite. **


	4. Recollecting

Fourth Chapter

Minato looked at the Kumo ninja in front of him, who had requested an audience, a private one, to speak about important facts. The fourth Hokage hadn't shaved in a while, nor had he taken a bath for a simple yet effective reason. His wife was pissed at him for having lied to her twice, of something that was obviously important not to lie about. Now, instead of actually throwing him out of the house, which would have brought problems because no, the people and the council didn't have to know that Naruto was their son, she had decided to simply make his life a living hell. Before departing in the morning, and thus granting Minato with the prospect of having a pleasant homecoming in the afternoon, she had proceeded to tell their daughter, Katsumi, to spend some time *sleeping over* with her friends, in another house. Then, with great care and consideration, she had proceeded to booby-trap the entire Namikaze mansion for the two days Katsumi wouldn't have been at home. All without telling Minato a thing, so, when he had tried going to the bathroom, he had thanked Kami for his fast reflexes, that had avoided him losing his most important appendage to a kunai launcher position parallel to the toilet seat.

However, those two days of trap tortures paled in comparison with what the Kumo messenger was talking about. Kumo wished to participate in the Genins exams that would have taken place in two years in Konoha, instead of usually making the exams by themselves, and the Raikage would have been present too. The only problem was that the messenger, Darui, had spoken of the possibility for them to have an alliance only on certain conditions: first and foremost, the absolute prohibition of trying to claim any Jinchuuriki from their nation for aid in battles.

Normally, Minato would have waited and called on the council, but there was something strange, on that being the first point of the letter that A had written to him personally, that and the fact that it was the first sentence without overbearing insults on his *cowardice out of battle*. Some insults, however, seemed damn personal, like *kid slaver*, *heartless monster*, *I'd kick your ass if I weren't busy in Kumo* and so on, most of which didn't seem at all connected to anything Minato had previously done, and that was the strange thing: it was more of a pissed off letter to him, but differently from Kushina, he could actually reply to this letter in equal tones, since the Raikage knew respect only for those who took him on, on equal grounding.

Darui had stared at the fourth Hokage for a while, now, and was still eying the two Anbu, hidden, but not to his keen senses, in the room. He had to admit he was toying with them: every now and then he'd make a nearly imperceptible movement of the torso, and the Anbu would tense, then he would relent, relaxing, and the Anbu would keep being tense for a good five minutes, before relaxing once more. It was funny.

"I had a question, if you can answer that, Darui-san," Minato's blue eyes stopped on the small grin of the dark skinned man, who was looking at the Anbus and once more assuming a slightly more aggressive posture to see them tense, "Anbu, you may leave…he's toying with you, and I can pretty much defend myself," having said that, the Anbus nodded, from their hidden position in the room, and disappeared, probably having Shunshin'd outside through the open window.

"Depends on the question, Hokage-sama," Darui replied with ease, looking at the man who had been the probable author of all the sufferance of B's new Bro, he knew he stood no chance to actually harm the Hokage, too fast, Konoha's yellow flash, but still, he had been sent specifically because he wouldn't outright snap at him.

"I received a report about a group of Kumo ninja travelling on a mission through the land of fire. Truthfully, first I signed it, gave it, and then I took it back only after a couple of hours to look at it better," as he said that, the blond spike haired Hokage tried a smile, but got nothing in response from Darui, who seemed unfazed or uncaring, "and it turned out that it was permission for, well, two persons I know well to be Jinchuurikis, and one I know to be a Jounin level, but the fourth…well, the fourth had me surprised, Darui-san."

"Why is that, Hokage-sama?" Darui asked, still not looking troubled in the slightest.

"Well, as it turns out, it's barely a Genin, a ten years old Genin, travelling with two Jinchuurikis and one Jounin level ninja from Kumo, and whose name, and general characteristics, has been unluckily spilled by coffee marks months old, so I couldn't get it, but it seems strange that Kumo sent it without looking for mistakes, so I kind of have to ask...who *is* the boy?" Minato actually wouldn't have bothered with it, if it hadn't been the Raikage one of his personal *sparring partners*.

"What I am about to say must remain secret, for as long as possible." Darui whispered, slowly perching near Minato, who, nodding, activated the privacy seals.

"He's the son of the Raikage." As Darui whispered that, with absolute certainty, and no whatsoever trace of lie, Minato jolted up yelling out loud, and thanking himself for the sound-proof walls plus the seals.

"HE IS WHAT? WHEN HOW WITH WHO OR WHAT!" He had done everything under his nose! Not even Jiraiya had been able to come up with such a secret in all of his travels! Minato was more than sure that the toad hermit actually used his excuse of *speaking to the spy network* to instead go and peek into hot springs baths and other less than moral occupations.

"That is all I'm allowed to say on the matter, Hokage-sama. I take it you understand why we could not hand over a name, or a face…not without an alliance, obviously." As Darui spoke slowly, Minato nodded, he too hadn't much shared the news of the face of Katsumi around with the other kages, you never knew when a friend became an enemy or not, and as such it was the only safe thing to do.

"So it's his first mission outside of Kumo, and he's got bodyguards with him." Minato actually wanted to smirk, and make it an offensive comment, as he would probably place his daughter in the hands of his own student, Kakashi, and two other Genins, probably the top first of the class, but wouldn't be as protective as the Raikage.

"Precisely, the mission was a low D-level one, nothing more than bandits, and it would certainly help him in his first…well, kill." Darui slightly tensed when the Hokage smiled, corking his head to the side with a smile becoming grin.

"Oh…" Minato then chuckled, "popping the cherry aren't we? Anyway, I suppose there won't be a trouble discussing alliances through messengers for a while, you may go back to the Raikage's side and inform him that I will send over a letter, just as *colorful* as his own." Darui nodded at the Hokage's word, and took leave, deciding that the sooner he left the city, the sooner he'd feel…cleaner, as he couldn't withstand seeing people so casually stroll by smiling, or happily chatting or selling stuff, and connect them to the stories that Naruto himself had spoken of, more than once, and that he had started to cope with by declaring them nightmares.

He passed by the orphanage, just to have a look at the institution, and was surprised when he saw a flash of grey, stinted pink on the head of an elderly looking woman, Karusa Haruno, and how she was so happily smiling with a bunch of other orphans. He would have wanted to enter, grab her by the neck and chain her to a rack filled with pointy ends, but he controlled himself, he could feel the Anbu's gaze on him, even though he had done his best to remain hidden, C's courses on *detect the enemy so that you don't get a pike up your rear* were useful, after all.

He grabbed just a couple of fresh fruits, to eat for the first days of travel, and then started walking at a leisurely place out of Konoha, he would have dashed, normally, but he wanted to make the Anbu following him a bit more nervous, by acting *cool*.

*Land of Waves*

"I have not been paid enough to fight you lot," Zabuza of the hidden mist pointed his finger at the group of ninjas, Kumo and Konoha together, and then, with a sigh, he added, "I'm all but suicidal, and this *is* suicidal, so…we give up, Tazuna-san it's been a pleasure meeting you, see you around when, maybe, you aren't surrounded by like a hell of a lot of too high-leveled ninjas. Haku! We're leaving!" With those final words, Zabuza actually jumped out of the way of the group, and left them there with an enormous anime sweat drop on their foreheads.

"Sensei! I ain't gonna train if this keeps up!" N slanged to B, who sighed and raised his right hand, his index out, before saying in a teacher-like attitude.

"Bro the rhymes must come from the heart,

All you need is a good start,

Then you must grab a rhythm,

And make rhymes that become myth!

YO! CHIKA BOW CHIKA BOW!" as B rapped that, Yugito turned to speak to Kushina, who was looking at the scene with a perplexed expression.

"It's their thing…I tried not to have B corrupt N, but it didn't work out, since it makes him happy, I generally close an eye," Yugito turned his gaze, more soft, towards the boy, and Kushina, as it was something akin to female sense, spoke back.

"Is he your younger brother?" as she queried that, she mentally told herself it wasn't possible they were related by blood, after all, the boy's hair was black, and hers blond, he had green eyes, and she had dark eyes, if anything, it could have been an adopted one, but still she was *curious*, as out of all the others, he was the most strange.

"Adopted, but yes, he is," Yugito replied back, "and if anything happens to him I'll probably tear apart wave country in an effort to take him back, especially considering this D-mission turned A-mission." As she casually stared to Tazuna, the man sweated a bit, before trying a nervous chuckle.

"Zabuza of the hidden mist and his associate have left the premises of my sensor range." C stated, and, just as imperceptibly, Killer B stopped being tense, as Kushina too had been. C seemed to be a sensor type, and pretty good at it too, having been the one to realize they were being watched.

"That's good! My house is nearby too, so how about crashing at my place as thanks for not having left my sorry butt on the road alone?" as Tazuna offered that with a smile, taking the *lead* the rest of the ninja followed.

Kushina started realizing something strange: it was always Yugito, C or B that stood next to her, never the boy, who, without realizing it, ended up moving further away from her each time. This started to puzzle her to no end, as it seemed they were going to great lengths in showing their distrust of her.

"Oh by the way!" Naruto exclaimed, along the road, "I finally got the Raiton: Kangekiha down! Want to see it?"

"Elemental jutsus at such an age? Is he really only a Genin?" as Kushina queried that, B rapped a reply.

"Bro's got chakra to spend,

His control is excellent,

So without further delay,

Elemental jutsus I taught him oh yeahy!"

"That…that was horrible rapping, and no, Naruto, you don't *show off* jutsus, you use them when you need them," Yugito muttered, before realizing she had said the first part out loud, that out a bit louder than expected, rolling her eyes over as she saw B feigning being mortally wounded in the chest, and exclaiming out loud.

"Oh! My wound is fatal,

Bro help me out her words are lethal,

Yugi-chan doesn't like my rhymes

But she can't sing for a dime."

"Don't make me angry," Yugito growled slightly, her nails strangely elongating of a couple of inches.

"Now that's not very nice to say, B-san," Kushina butted in, for the *female power* stuff, probably, "I am sure Yugito-san can sing pretty well."

"She's tone deaf," the reply came like a matter of fact from C, who then dodged a set of claws aimed at where his face would have been seconds before, "and the truth hurts her."

"I am *not* tone death!" Yugito exclaimed, as Naruto simply chuckled.

"Yugito-oneechan, you forced Hakkaku to give you a permanent discount on ramen if you didn't sing in his restaurant," as the boy pointed that out, Kushina's eyes lit up.

"Speaking about Ramen, I know of this stand in Konoha…" she just barely pronounced the name of the village, that Naruto shivered, but kept walking, albeit he was a bit paler, "Ichiraku's ramen, maybe if you ever pass by there, you should try it out, it's the best in all of the land of fire, Dattebayo!" the red-haired woman smiled, as she finished her sentence, frowning just a bit when all she got back was a simple nod of the head, realizing how everyone had seemingly been worried on the boy, even if for just a split second.

"I see, are you fond of ramen too, Kushina-san?" Yugito queried.

"Yes! I love it! I'd eat it every day if it wasn't unhealthy in the long run. It runs in the family I suppose: even my daughter is pretty fond of it." Kushina's gaze turned sad for a moment, as she thought if, somewhere, there was a blond haired boy with blue eyes who was walking around in tattered rags asking for spare change to get something under his teeth, the sheer thought of that made her shiver and shake her head, no, Jiraiya was the best spy there ever was, he'd certainly find the boy and bring him back home.

"We got introduced to it by N-kun here…the brat ate nothing else for a long time, it was hard to convince him that vegetables weren't out to murder him." Yugito replied with a chuckle.

"Hey! That's true! You can't tell me the contrary, when you refuse onions on the same basis!" Naruto replied, feigning offense.

"N-kun, I hate only onions, you seem to hate the entire range of vegetables," Yugito replied.

"I say a healthy bro needs some green,

Then some red, some white and some yellow,

Then he can grow up strong and macho,

And conquer women with his strong…" B had begun rapping, but was swiftly stopped from ending his sentence by a fierce growl coming from Yugito.

"Stop rapping, sensei."

"Aw… C-kun, help a bro out!" as B exclaimed, feigning being hurt, C rolled his eyes in annoyance, and sighed.

"B-sensei, please, we are not looking professional with the ninja from the other hidden village."

"Don't mind me! I'll talk with this young boy over here, N-kun, right?" the other Kumo ninjas snapped their heads to the side, realizing that, in the heat of their exchanges, Kushina, as a good Anbu, had slowly made her way next to Naruto.

"About what?" Naruto queried, looking at the red-haired Anbu. There was something familiar in her, something about the mask on the back of the head, he couldn't quite place it, but even the name *Kushina* was familiar to him.

"Well, how about your hobbies, your likes and dislikes and your dreams, just to pass time until we reach Tazuna-san's house. I'll go first if you want to." As Kushina suggested that with a smile, someone else frowned.

"_Sly bitch"_ was all that Yugito thought, while removing the scowl from her face.

"Nah, I can do it! My name is *N*," a silent mental sigh in the minds of the Kumo ninja could be heard, "I like ramen, my Otou-san, my bro, Yugito-oneechan, C-san, Darui-san, my classmates from the academy, I hate the time it takes for ramen to cook, I hate it when people call me something else, I can't stand seeing people being bullied, and my dream is to become the next Raikage, following after my Otou-san!" At that moment, Kushina simply smiled, but her brain didn't, at all, refuse the connection: this brat here was the son of the Raikage of Kumo. There were ninjas who would have sold their souls for a chance to capture him and demand something back, and that, that quite actually explained the reason there were two Jinchuurikis and one Jounin level sensor ninja with him. The only problem was the boy's hair and eyes, the Raikage was blond.

"N-kun, why don't you come with me for a moment…" C said, "I think it's time you learn how to sense other people's chakra."

"Yeahy!" as Naruto skipped ahead, ignoring the fact that it was Kushina's turn to speak about herself, Yugito and B silently moved in a sort of *wall* formation, with the female Jinchuuriki moving a couple steps back, to speak with the woman herself.

"You made me curious, what would your likes and dislikes be, instead, Kushina-san?" Yugito queried with a smile that was as fake as fake could go.

"Oh well," Kushina replied with another fake smile, sparks of electricity going from the red-head eyes to the blond haired Kumo ninja and backwards, "I like my husband, the fourth Hokage, I like Ramen too, Salt Ramen in particular, I like Konoha, I dislike anything bitter and the Kumo ninja who tried to kidnap me when I was little, or people who insult the color of my hair, and my dream is to find out the whereabouts of one of my relatives."

She was surprised when they didn't react to her being the wife of the fourth Hokage, but that was probably because there was the brother of the Raikage there, or something like that, but at the word of Konoha, Kushina confirmed that the black-haired boy had shivered once more, he had something against her village?

"Oh, I instead like to play the shamisen, I like to eat tekkadon and the ramen, I despise the enemies of Kumo or those who would try and harm my little adoptive brother, and I can't stand the color red, and my dream is to make sure Kumogakure becomes the first shinobi village in the world." Both women's veins on the forehead began to pulse, as Tazuna stared at the scene, with a perplexed look, but said nothing, for at least five minutes, before gathering enough courage.

"Ehm…guys?" he asked politely.

"WHAT!" the two women yelled at him, who made a slight jump back.

"My house…is that one." Pointing behind him at a wooden house that they had passed by and hadn't seen in the heat of their *intense* staring contest.

"C-san…" Naruto whispered to the Jounin, "Women sure are scary when angry."

"N-kun…you have no idea." C replied, with a small chuckle.

*Land of Waves-Days later*

Naruto was guarding the bridge, alone. He had insisted on the point that, while being fine with him having to be baby-sat, he could at the very least guard a bridge without anyone else. With the greatest threat, supposedly, removed, there shouldn't have been anything he alone couldn't take. It didn't stop the other Kumo ninja to just so occasionally come and see how he was doing, every fifteen minutes, and then simply hide nearby.

The only one who wasn't nearby was C, who, on the other hand, was just so casually training on his sensor distance by targeting the bridge, and Naruto status, and doing it all from a nearby hill, that he had chosen just so casually too, albeit it being the closest one in line of air with the bridge itself.

Just as Yugito had *casually* decided to stroll by, and then leave after a couple of minutes, Kushina took her chance.

She silently made her way next to N-kun, and startled him with a wide grinned.

"Buh!" making the boy jump to the side, in surprise, and having him let go of the kunai he was playing with, that fell to his side, beneath the bridge, but luckily falling on the rocky beach and not in the ocean.

"You scared me Kushina-san! What was that for?" N queried, taking deep breath to calm down, as he realized his kunai was down there, but not in the risk of getting carried away by the waves.

"Just thought of some chit-chat without your babysitters around…I take it you don't like the situation you're in?" as the red haired kunoichi from Konoha spoke, C was, at the same time, being distracted by a really annoying brat named *Inari* who had been tasked, in exchange for five ryos, to keep the man as much stressed out as possible.

"No. Otou-san thinks I can't handle myself, but I can't say it out loud, or he'll get hurt," Kushina tried her best not to smirk at the thought of the Raikage, that mass of dark skinned muscles and straight, stern gaze, being *hurt* from the words of his son, "but I'm no longer a child! I can take care of myself as a Genin from Kumo!"

"I see, well, how is your first mission going for the moment?"

"Boring, just because Bro and Yugito-oneechan are famous and strong, thugs simply run away and there is nothing to do. This is a fake C-mission: at most it's not even a Z-mission!" N scowled as he watched the construction workers head off towards their homes, as the new shift of workers took their place, "and I just dropped my favorite Kunai!" he pouted.

Kushina chuckled, moving to the side of the bridge, and then, with a grin, whispered something to N.

"Look at this." She conjured a chakra chain from her back, making it descend swiftly and roll around Naruto's kunai, before retracting the chain, pulling the Kunai upwards and in her hand, and then handing it over to a really surprised Naruto, who took it with his mouth still wide agape.

"Th-That was cool! Can you teach me that, please!"

"I'm afraid I…" but then a thought crossed her mind, why not? It wouldn't work with the boy, since he wasn't an Uzumaki, but she might get something from it, "only on one condition."

"Which is?" N queried hopeful it was something he could do.

"Answering one question truthfully: are you using Anbu-class camouflage to mask your real face?" as she asked that, Naruto looked at the woman, then, deciding it wasn't so much of a problem speaking about it, he nodded.

"Yeah, normally my hair is blond and my eyes are blue, but please, don't tell Yugito-oneechan and the others I told you!" as he spoke, Kushina took her time imagining the Raikage-type of blond, but the more she thought about it, the more N, with blue eyes, started to assume another aspect, one which…no, it couldn't be possible. What were the chances?

"Hey! Now can you explain how you did that cool chain trick?" it was N's turn to make questions, and Kushina smiled, before nodding.

"All right 'ttebayo, here's how you must do it…first, concentrate your chakra on your fingertips." As Kushina said that, Naruto raised both his hands, and concentrated, it was like doing one of the Raitons, only without actually making the chakra accelerate.

"Then, you must imagine yourself *knitting* it, it's something very difficult, and usually…" Kushina words died in her mouth, as Naruto, simply, had a pair of blue-hued chakra chains that started to emerge from his own fingers, and that kept on growing and growing, with the boy staring at them in fascination, as he kept mentally repeating to himself to mend the chakra right-left-left-right-right-left-left-right.

His feat was interrupted by a loud yell, however.

"N! COME HERE THIS INSTANT YOU!" Before Kushina could do anything, a really fuming with anger Yugito had already snapped out of his trance N, and had made him look with uneasiness at Kushina and then at Yugito, before whispering.

"Have to go, thanks for the trick!" And dashing off towards his *oneechan* who seemed more keen on grabbing him by the ear and explaining to him how he was a stupid, idiotic imbecile for not having answered the first time for dinner.

Kushina stared at the boy, from her spot, imagining him with blond hair, blue eyes, the whisker marks, with the fact that the chains of chakra were an Uzumaki only bloodline privilege…that could mean only one thing…that boy over there had a high chance of being her long lost son.

She snapped out of her trance-like state, shaking her head and standing up, when she realized that both Yugito and *N* were probably already heading towards Tazuna's house. There was only one last proof she needed, one that she could test out right there.

"NARUTO!" as N turned around, surprised at being called by his real name, and staring at the red-haired woman, Yugito on the other hand narrowed her eyes, grabbing the boy and starting to dash back towards Tazuna's house.

Kushina hadn't gone years in despair to give up the chance that the boy was his son so soon, and she dashed off behind the Jinchuuriki, bringing her right hand forward.

"CHAKRA CHAINS BARRIER!" as Kushina yelled that, chains burst forward from her back, dashing through the air and encircling Yugito, and Naruto who was on her shoulder, in a barrier-like made of chains, that, while it seemed to have a lot of air and escape, in truth had none, especially because between one *chain pillar* and the other, there was an invisible like chakra barrier.

Yugito didn't take a moment of hesitation, in letting go of Naruto and turning around.

"Is this an act of war against Kumo? You're not going to go far, when B and C come here!" Yugito yelled at Kushina.

"This is already an act of war against Konoha! You stole Naruto from it!" Kushina replied, angered as she raised her left hand, letting the chains do the talking, as they dashed forward to encircle Yugito.

Yugito managed to sidestep them, jumping backwards, and then thanking Kami for the scaffoldings, on which she nimbly climbed, all the while dodging the chains that kept on following her, breaking through the wooden structure, and thus slowing down.

_Why am I feeling sluggish?_ She thought, before earning an explanation from Matabi.

**Cat, that's an Uzumaki style chain, its purpose is the binding of Bijuus and the absorbing of chakra from their enemies, she seems a master of it: as a Jinchuuriki, I'm afraid it's the worst possible enemy, and you heard her: she can hold the nine-tails, and I don't think it's a boast.**

_Can I say the F. word? _

**You need to find a way out! The barrier is a semi-sphere, just go under!**

_That's concrete we're talking about! Can't I transform?_

**That would be worse! She'd just tear me outside!**

_WHAT! How in the frigging hell can she do that!_

**Uzumaki-style-chains, do I need to repeat myself?**

…_I've got to get Naruto out._

Biting her tongue, and making the symbols, she did the only thing she could do at the moment.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Neko!" placing her hand on the ground, a cloud of smoke later revealed a Persian cat, with a white and red fur, and a Kumo head protector on her tail.

As Kushina called back the left hand chains, she grabbed onto the Kunai she held at the waist, a strange three prolonged kunai.

_Wait, that's…_

**OH SHIT.**

An impulse of chakra later, the Yellow flash, the Yondaime Hokage, the one and only Minato Namikaze, stood on the bridge, staring perplexed at the sight of the chain barrier, of a Kumo ninja with a Persian cat the size of a large bulldog, a raven-haired boy shivering in a corner and staring at the battle in fear, and a really angry Kushina. Nobody moved, for the first seconds.

"They have Naruto!" Kushina yelled, which earned her the undivided attention of Minato, who, jumping backwards to the side of his wife, said:

"Where are they keeping him?"

"The raven-haired boy, it's him! It's Naruto!" as Kushina pointed that out, Yugito yelled back.

"That's the Raikage's son! If you try anything it will be considered an act of war!" as she jumped backwards, the Persian cat following nimbly, the Yondaime narrowed his eyes, recalling the events of some days before, when the messenger had arrived, and how some points…well, some points actually would have worked against Konoha in reclaiming Naruto back, once they learned it out...that sly son of a…

This had to be fate's way of making things right: he'd grab the boy, give him back to Kushina, make sure he wasn't brainwashed by Kumo, ask for a meeting and force the Raikage into submitting into an alliance or into being in the wrong. Then he recalled about Iwagakure, and Sunagakure, they'd just love to side with the Raikage, especially on this delicate matter. Wherever he was actually the son of the Raikage through adoption or not, it didn't matter, wherever he was the nine-tailed Jinchuuriki or not, it didn't matter: that was his son over there, the son he had given to the harsh hands of fate, and that fate had brought back within his grasp, he'd grab him alright, even if it meant war.

Grabbing a scroll from the side of his vest, under his ample white and red trench coat, he swiftly undid the string, releasing simultaneously a barrier of Kunais that launched themselves forward, landing randomly in the area in front of him.

"Kushina, support!" with that, he launched himself forward, disappearing into a flash.

Yugito bit her lower lip hard, that was a really, really bad situation. Sure, she was a Jinchuuriki, and sure she was the two-tails, problem? She was against the Yellow Flash and the Uzumaki who could literally rip Matabi out of her body, which meant death, for her, and she had to protect Naruto who was cringing in a corner, the shock too much. More than that, however, she questioned just *where* the frigging hell had C and B gone to!

Had she turned around, she would have seen a very pissed off Hachibi trying to punch his way through the chakra chain barrier, only to fail miserably with every hit.

"I punch like a tornado,

I kick like an earthquake,

So you damn friggin barrier,

SMASH INTO PIECES ALREADY!" B yelled, as another set of Hachibi's punches produced nothing, impacting harmlessly on the surface.

"B! This is bad! That's the Hokage over there! We need to be quick and send a message to the Raikage!" C replied, trying to reason with Killer B.

"…C, you go and intercept Darui, he'll probably be going at a leisurely pace, so tell him to go faster, I'll support Yugito! …if the damn thing falls!" B replied, "I'll have to use the Bijudama!"

"A prohibited you from using that! You're going to change the landscape!" C yelled back at the Hachibi form of B, who…shrugged.

"I'm taking the bro back! Whatever it takes, it takes!"

Naruto, on the other hand, was frozen in fear. He had thought that maybe not all Konoha ninjas were evil, the woman seemed nice. Then she had called him by his name, how did she know? Did he slip while talking to her? Then she had tried to harm his oneechan, HIS oneechan, and now they were fighting, and then what? Would they kill Yugito? Why? What did she do wrong? What did HE do wrong to earn this? What did he do? Why?

**Scared? Afraid, need a hand? **The Kyuubi chuckled, reaching out to Naruto's mind.

_I don't want this, I don't want this, I don't want this. _Were the twirling thoughts of the boy.

**You want them to stop, don't you? Come on, accept my power: let me show you how to make them stop.**

_No, you're lying. You're lying. Liar. You're a liar._

**A liar or not, look, he's just wounded your precious Oneechan!**

Naruto raised his eyes and bulged them in shock, as truth be told, Yugito had several slashes across her body, blood dribbling out and landing on the concrete of the bridge, the man stood tall, his face absolutely without emotion, like it didn't matter to him what he was doing to Yugito, like it was just part of the job description, *come and make Naruto's life hell*. Then, Yugito got on her knees, panting heavily for the blood loss.

_Even the regeneration, Matabi? I can't fight him like this._

**Sorry Cat, I'm doing what I can.**

_Screw it all: he dispersed the neko summon in a flash…Konoha's yellow flash…damn, I doubt the Raikage would magically appear out of nowhere, right?_

**That *would* be a miracle, yeah.**

No longer interested in Yugito, who was now barely hanging to her consciousness, Minato moved forward, towards Naruto, whose eyes had already started turning red, his contact lenses popping off and falling on the ground.

"Oh no you don…" Minato didn't finish the sentence, as he swiftly brought his battle kunai in a defensive position, just in time to block a slash from Naruto's pocket knife.

"Hey kid, calm down! I'm your…" Naruto dashed forward, ignoring the man's words, he had to save Yugito, but how? He knew he had to aim at the woman. It didn't matter that he wasn't as fast as usual. He knew what he had to do. His mind was clear. He had…

"Raiton: Jibashi!" It didn't matter to him to dose it, he had to destroy the ground, they were on a bridge, if Kushina lost her footing she would fall and would have to remove the technique.

As Naruto's electrically charged, or better yet, overcharged hands touched the ground, Minato swiftly disappeared and reappeared next to Kushina grabbing her and jumping upward, just in time to avoid the destruction of good part of the bridge, by the hands of the very one tasked with protecting it!

However, in doing so, Kushina actually had to give up on the Chakra Chains barrier, resulting…

"Hachibi! Bijudama!"

_AIM HIGHER YOU MORON!_

"Ops!"

The sphere of concentrated white evil chakra and good black chakra threw itself forward, aiming a bit higher, and thus avoiding to actually reducing to ashes both Naruto and Yugito, but flinging against Minato and Kushina, but before it could impact, however, Minato had already transported himself downwards with Kushina, avoiding the blast that went off in the distance, destroying a, till then happy, hill on which a certain Gatou's shipping company had residence.

As the barrier was off, however, Minato whispered at Kushina.

"Just stab him with the chains and we'll bring him with us!" In the heat of the moment, Kushina nodded, as there was actually no other way, with B already moving his fists downwards, in his full Hachibi form, to protect the two.

With a speed similar to that of a lightning bolt, a chakra chain flew forward, piercing straight through Naruto's abdomen and as it recoiled backwards, bringing the boy nearer to the two, Minato managed just in the blink of time to get a hold of him, and transport them all out of Killer B's reach.

"YOU DAMN SON OF A …" the rest of the insults, covered with the Hachibi's trashing around, actually made the building of the bridge a year-long project, once more, but without Gatou's thug, it actually turned out fine...well, except the scared senseless workers who renamed the bridge *The fury of the Bijuu*.

*Konoha-Minato's safe house*

"Naruto!" Kushina was worried, she had, quite actually, nearly killed her son in order to save him from the Kumo ninjas. Once in the safety of the safe house of Minato, she had dissolved the chakra chains, taking deep breaths as she looked worriedly over Naruto's fainted body, the wound already closing up thanks to the high regeneration, and to the lack of chakra chains to prevent that.

Minato too looked at his son, then at his wife, but, after a brief moment of respite, he suddenly realized the idiocy of what he had done.

"Kushina," the Yondaime started gravely.

"Isn't he beautiful in his sleep?" came as a half dreamy reply from his wife, who was gently caressing Naruto's hair, still raven-colored, while holding his head on her lap.

"Kushina, you realize what we just did?" Minato spoke again, if a bit softer.

"We got our child back. That's what we did." Kushina replied, staring back at Minato, the stern look on her face saying it all.

"We kidnapped a Kumo ninja, who, if his companions are to be believed, is the Raikage's adopted son. How are we going to explain that?"

"You will tell everyone the truth: he is my son and yours, wherever you like it or not, no matter what will come, I am not going to let him out of my grasp again. He's mine, got it?" as Kushina said that, she quite possessively *clung* to her sleeping boy, who kept being knocked out cold.

"Fine, I'll come up with something…how are we going to tell Katsumi?" Minato queried his wife, who took a thoughtful moment to answer.

"I'm going to speak with her about it, she'll understand." Kushina replied.

"You do realize that the Raikage *will* declare war on Konoha, as will Iwagakure and Sunagakure, unless there's a…" Minato's eyes suddenly flashed up, in enlightenment, "I've got an idea."

Kushina eyed him dubiously, holding on to Naruto like the man wanted to snatch him away any second.

"Now, I know you want him to be called our son." Minato began, and he already got a growl from Kushina.

"But if that happens, then I'll probably lose my position, and I won't be able to protect him from Danzo."

Kushina looked at Minato with a puzzled expression, not understanding.

"Danzo would probably understand, as would the council, us *retaking* the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki. It was ours to begin with, but if we do that while revealing that he's our son then I'll lose my position, Danzo and his war-hawk like attitude will come in, and Naruto will be taken away, by Konoha this time, and trained like a weapon." Kushina's eyes turned saddening, she hadn't thought about that.

"Now here's the point: we won't tell the people of Konoha, but we will tell Naruto, we'll call for a meeting in the land of Iron, with Mifune present, and we'll explain the reason behind our actions to the Raikage, and there comes the bargain."

"Bargain?" Kushina queried, puzzled.

"We'll force him to accept the fact that he should be left to choose between him and his real family, and that we didn't know he had been *kidnapped*, and we were looking for him, Jiraiya-san will come in as an eyewitness, as I had tasked him to find Naruto, and with a sannin's words they'll have no choice but to let the boy choose!"

"And what if he chooses Kumo? He dreams of becoming the Raikage!" Kushina exclaimed, as, deep down, she was worried it wouldn't matter that she was Naruto's mother.

"We'll ask for five years, the same amount of time he spent in Kumo since we last knew of him," Minato replied, "by the time it ends, Naruto will probably already be old enough to decide by himself, and maybe, if we work it right, he'll love us as family, I doubt we could do worse than the Raikage himself."

"Minato…I…I just want to…" Kushina stuttered, looking down at Naruto's whisker marks, and tracing them with the tip of her fingers.

"I'd abandon him again…I can't do that Minato."

"Kushina-hime…it's either this, or Danzo, and a cold blooded weapon, is not a son..." Minato spoke slowly, and Kushina, biting her lower lip, muttered.

"Kami will send me to hell for this…I know it…I just know it."

"Give him here: I'll take care of him." Minato whispered, gently taking from Kushina's arms Naruto, and then disappearing once more, to the symbol in the Hokage's office, leaving behind a weeping Kushina.

*Kumo-Days later*

"Team Killer B is back together with Darui!" as a most nervous Karui entered the Raikage's office, A stared from the vast amount of paperwork he was doing and nodded.

"Well, let them in alright." _Can't wait to hear how Naruto's first mission went by: he'll whine he was bored out of his mind, minimum._

"They're…" Karui couldn't finish, because the door was actually removed from its hinges as B entered the Hokage's office covered in dirt, grime and sweat, like of one who hasn't stopped running, on his back stood C and Darui, the two breathing heavily and barely hanging to consciousness, while Yugito, upon reaching the office, simply muttered "Nar…" before fainting outright.

"Bro…they got Naruto," B spoke slowly, depositing both C and Darui down on the carpet of the Raikage's office.

"WHAT!" the yell was heard even by the gate guards of Kumo, and tiny ripples of water appeared in every lake in the area, as glasses shattered and birds took flight.

The Raikage's desk was smashed in two in the blink of an eye, as A walked furiously over B.

"WHO KIDNAPPED MY SON! AND WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU BRO! WHERE WERE YOU!"

"Bro…it was the yellow flash and his wife…the wife of his is an Uzumaki, she blocked us out with a strange barrier…Yugito was the one inside, she tried her best but against the yellow flash she had no chance…" as B slowly explained, A's face turned into full-out fury.

"This means war! Karui! Go and send messengers to Iwa and Suna, I'm sure they'd like a piece of Konoha!"

When Karui was about to exit, however, she jumped backwards, because on the doorway stood a slightly pale Toad Sage, who, nervously gulping, muttered.

"I…I have a message for the Raik…" as A's enhanced fist dashed forward against Jiraiya's face, the Hermit managed to sidestep, albeit only slightly avoiding the full front attack, and instead getting thrown against the opposite wall.

"MESSENGER! COME IN cough cough PEACE!" Jiraiya managed to yell, before dodging to the side another lightning armor enhanced fist.

"Stop running!" A yelled, "That stupid student of yours kidnapped my son!"

"Calm down! The Nine-tails is Konoha's Bijuu!"

"I don't give a fuck about the Bijuu!" at that yell, Jiraiya stopped.

"What?"

"I don't give a damn about the Bijuu! I want my son back! Keep the nine tails if you want it so badly!" as A snorted that, he moved forward, but as Jiraiya assumed a defensive posture, he saw him simply pass by, and reach for a drawer of the destroyed desk, taking out a pile of documents.

"Documents for adoption, it's a damn sixty-four amount of sheets, do you think I'd go through this without cause?"

"If it would help get your village one more Jinchuuriki, why would you not?" Jiraiya replied, shrugging but dodging to the side a lightning bolt.

"Look, I'm going to tell you a story, and then you'll realize he's better off away from those damn bastards of Konoha, your student included!"

"Should I take a chair?" as the sage said that, he got a chair…thrown at him by the Raikage himself.

"Sit down and listen." A muttered in rage, before beginning…

*Flashback*

A was strolling along Kumo, having successfully finished his allotted quota of work for the day, which meant nearly a quarter, or half if you carefully selected some papers and made them disappear under the carpet till further notice. As he was walking along, he realized there was a slight fuss going on in the park, as some boys were yelling over a ball that had been thrown too far, and had ended up downwards, in a chasm that naturally surrounded the city, and that ended in a basin of collected rain water. There weren't cliffs, or rocks, and A recalled fondly the time as a kid he would throw himself downwards, as the basins were quite deep and there was thus no risk in simply jumping down, as long as one did at least a nice jump to avoid scraping his backside against the rocks.

He grinned, deciding he would do a nice action for Karma, and, after a brief set of murmurs from the kids, who saw the Raikage walk forward in awe, he decided to jump downward, earning himself a set of gasps from the kids.

That was until he felt someone tugging on the back of his Kage's vest, and who was trying desperately to hold him upwards against all logic, even that of common sense. He actually turned around, curiosity taking the better of him and, while falling, realizing in shock it was a young blond boy with blue eyes, who was incredibly scared, but still wasn't letting go of his vest, and was actually trying to *prevent* him from falling too fast. He would have laughed at that, if it weren't extremely tragic that a, clearly no more than seven, years old wished to try and save him from falling down to his *doom*.

He swiftly grabbed the boy in a hold, hugging him tightly as his back hit against the water of the basin, leaving the Raikage unfazed, as he was built of sterner stuff.

"A-Are you alright kid?" The Raikage was the first to speak, staring straight into those blue eyes of the boy, those eyes…he had already seen those eyes.

At the time however the boy had dark hair and not blonde and even the eye color was different, but the message those eyes sent, that message was still the same, he didn't reply to that question, simply staring at the Raikage.

"Why did you jump down kid?" The Raikage questioned him.

"You were going to fall…" He replied, "I wanted to save you." That, that made the Kage laugh.

"You, a shrimp, save me, the Raikage? Oh Kami this is the best laugh I had in years! Why would you save me, huh?" as A queried that, the boy replied simply, like he was stating something obvious.

"Yugito-chan said that you're the reason I have a bed, so I wanted to save you as thanks for the bed."

"The bed? Wait, you're Naruto-kun right?" as the Raikage asked that, Naruto nodded.

"Why would you thank me for a bed?"

"I didn't have one before." He replied, earning himself a surprised face from A.

"Oh, but you shouldn't have *saved me*," a chuckle, "only for a bed." Naruto shook his head.

"It's also for the food, and the hospital, for not being hit in the morning, in the afternoon, or in the night, it's for not shackling me to a wall, and it's also for the clothes, the table, the chair, the..."

"Fine kid, fine, I get it, but I didn't need to be saved, I'm the Raikage, I'm the strongest in the village, you know?" he actually wanted the boy to stop before he started to go on a rampage on Konoha. The boy was…a scrawny little thing, and yet he *had* been treated far worse than any other Jinchuuriki in the history of Kumo, and probably, even of the world!

"I'm sorry. I didn't know…do I have to go in the cellar now?" as the boy queried that, what made the Raikage snap wasn't the tone, saddened and filled with grief, it was the eyes, those eyes were the eyes of somebody who was resigned to his fate, of somebody who would accept it without even lamenting, those were, now the Raikage recalled, the eyes of a broken man.

"NO!" A actually yelled, scaring the kid as he was grabbed and brought on his shoulders, "you stay on those damn shoulders of mine!" as he felt the boy compelling to the order, A grabbed the ball and began climbing back up with ease, just in time to actually see, once on top, that among the child and their parents there was also Yugito, who had a really scared and worried expression.

"Naruto! What were you thinking? Come down from the Raikage's back right now!" as Yugito moved forward, A could actually feel the boy shiver, and, smirking, raised his right hand in front of Yugito.

"No need, Yugito-chan, I asked him to stay there."

"But…he's drenched Raikage-sama, and so are you." Yugito pointed that out, still uneasy about letting a clearly scared off boy on the back of the Raikage.

"Not a problem, there's a nice sun today: we'll dry off while walking," and without further delay, the Raikage began striding, after handing over the ball to one of the kids.

"So…tell me, Naruto-kun, what were you doing before *saving me*?" the Raikage asked.

"I…I was looking at the sky." Naruto replied, "The clouds are pretty to watch…then I heard the noise, thought it was mob-time, and looked down."

"…Mob-time?" A queried, as he could actually hear Naruto tighten his grip on the Raikage's back.

"Every once in a while there was mob-time. The Headmistress of the orphanage would grab me, bring me outside in the night, usually late at night, and told me to run while the villagers would follow me with clubs. They didn't want to kill me…only make me suffer, to remove the evil from my soul, at least, the headmistress said that. I don't know if it was working or not, but I know it hurt and that they usually yelled things."

"No-one stopped them from doing that?" A queried, perplexed, what about the guards, the Anbus, heck, what about the damn Hokage himself?

"Guards were the worst: they'd let me be beaten up, and then I'd be given the fault for having started it…they'd bring me back to the orphanage, and I'd have to stay in the cellar, but without the light from outside…one day the headmistress simply forgot to re-open the cellar's small window, so I stayed in the dark for a couple of months…that's why I like it now: I see the clouds, they're pretty."

"I…see, and tell me, why weren't you playing with the other kids?" A was dashing from building to building, looking around to see if his brother was anywhere nearby.

"I…nobody told me I could…"

"You could have asked them to let you play with them, they don't know you, but I don't think they would have refused."

"I…I never spoke with kids my age till…till…"

"Till?" A was curious, till when?

"Till I was taken in by the Anbus, they came for me because I was a bad kid, so...I was taken." He muttered meekly, A could feel the boy's face press against his back, probably to hide the tears.

"I see. Well, look! There's my brother over there! Damn idiot not doing his job as a guardian of Kumo, I'm sure you and he will become friends." As the Raikage said that, he grabbed Naruto from his shoulder, and holding him on his arm, he first Iron Clawed B for having started writing on his rhyme notebook, and having forgotten his patrol, and then he had given Naruto over to B, to try and… *open him up*.

*Flashback end*

"Later on, when he came to me saying he didn't want to go back, no matter what, he called me *otou-san* for the first time, he was literally crying out his firm intention of never, ever, setting foot in Konoha ever again. I don't know what other tortures you subjected him to, but I'm telling you this: it's not that he dislikes Konoha: he is traumatized by the village. If you do not hand him back, I fear he'll simply give in to the Kyuubi and let him roam free once more…as long as it brings him away from that hell-hole." As A finished speaking, Jiraiya was speechless, he gulped once, then nodded, and proceeded to summon a small frog, where he wrote a message towards the Yondaime.

"Deliver it, immediately, to Minato." As the frog nodded, grabbing the message and dispersing into smoke, Jiraiya turned his attention to the Raikage, and said slowly, "I…I didn't know about how he was treated, or I would have done something beforehand, I know it's not an excuse, and I understand you wouldn't trust me, but…can I hear more about Naruto's life in Kumo? I was meant to be his godfather, you know," Jiraiya sheepishly brought his right hand behind his head, "in exchange, I'll tell you all the *official* crap that Danzo had on him, the leader of Root and of the Anbu that kidnapped him..."

That, well, that got the Raikage interested.

"Fine: B, get Darui, C and Yugito to rest, then come back with *the package*."

"The package?" Jiraiya raised a puzzled eyebrow.

"A is in truth a…" Karui was about to say with a slight grin, but as interrupted by the Raikage.

"Karui! Go and do secretary work, or stuff, outside!"

"Aww…I wanted to see the package too!" feigning sadness, she left the room.

*Konoha, minutes after Minato left the safe house*

Minato had dropped Naruto on the couch in the Hokage's office, and had then called a council meeting of urgent matter.

When the entirety of the council, Danzo included, albeit on the civilian side and no longer on the military one, had arrived, it was time to begin.

"I have called you all here, swiftly, because…we have found the nine-tail Jinchuuriki." Murmurs of shock echoed through the room, with Danzo being slightly fazed by the event, but trying his best to keep a cold face.

"We should send someone to retrieve him: he belongs to Konoha, after all." Hiashi Hyuga, the head of the Hyuga clan, spoke.

"Troublesome, do we know if he has any allegiances?" Shikaku Nara spoke, sighing deeply.

"He seems to be with Kumo, but he could have been brainwashed," Minato spoke, "and thus I'll need Inoichi Yamanaka and Ibiki to check on him, after he's been successfully, *brought back*."

"Kumo? They already have Two Jinchuurikis! Why would they need another one? Those damn greedy bastards!" one of the civilian's people side spoke.

"They should keep it! It's their choice if they want monsters on their side!" another voice came stronger.

"Are you joking? Kumo with three Jinchuurikis would be our doom. We need him back, and we need him to become a weapon in Konoha's defense, brainwashing him if necessary." Obviously, this had been the voice of one of Danzo's associates, as Danzo spoke only rarely, and only when he wouldn't endanger his reputation with one side or the other.

"Enough. We must tread with caution. The last thing we need is a war with Kumo, but we need to do something!" Tsume Inuzuka roared.

"The first Hokage divided the tailed beasts among the hidden villages, and the Kyuubi was meant to be of Konoha! History is on our side, as the ancient treaties are too!" another councilman spoke.

"So…votes for taking the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki back?" Minato queried, and as some of the councilman raised their hands, Danzo too actually, many of the ninja clans heads did.

"The Majority is in favor, good, because I kind of already took back the Jinchuuriki," as Minato said that with a slight laughter, a set of sweat-drops appeared on the faces of everyone in the council, "my wife should actually take the credit: she realized it was him, and called me for back-up."

"Troublesome: what will be Kumo's reaction?" Shikaku Nara was the first to regain his senses.

"It will probably be war…but there is a way out." Minato replied, as the council was going on an uproar.

"Silence," Danzo spoke quietly, immediately earning the silence in the room, "What would the way out be, Hokage-sama?"

"It turns out, as a streak of luck, that the boy I randomly choose from the orphanage turned out to be an Uzumaki, like my wife, which would mean that, simply, we weren't taking him back because he was a Jinchuuriki, but because he was one of the remaining members of my wife's family…tear jerker story as a cover, basically. We'll then ask the Raikage to give the boy time in Konoha, and then, have him make a choice later on…hoping for the best."

"That is risky. The boy could, and actually should hate Konoha for how he was treated, unless he was treated far worse in Kumo," Shikaku spoke, "furthermore, if the Raikage refuses, all we have on our side are old treaties."

"We could ask them *how* they got the boy: if there was any hostile takeover, then we have all the right to claim it back." Danzo replied.

"It?" Minato queried, narrowing his eyes.

"A weapon deserves no *him*." Danzo replied with a scoff.

"I see…well, we need to decide where to put *him*," stressing the word, "my wife wanted to have him nearby, so I was thinking about an apartment near the Namikaze compound, in that way, if something were to happen, we'd be able to intervene directly, as the area has more Anbu patrols than normal."

"We could directly insert him into the Anbu program though," the Anbu commander, an Anbu with a dog mask spoke, "if he already is with Kumo, they probably trained him."

"That is why, in order to make sure he chooses Konoha, I was instead thinking of having him live a *normal* shinobi life: he'll do the academy with his peers of age and then, graduated, we'll give him a Konoha headband, if he passes obviously. It should strengthen the bond with the village, and he might actually like not being treated like a weapon, a fact that Kumo probably did." As Minato spoke, Shikaku narrowed his eyes, but then shrugged.

"It could work…so all that remain is the Raikage's option...and the boy's predisposition."

"So, everyone in favor of this way?" as Minato asked, there were still some growling in the underground, but nobody refused it too much, as Danzo gave his approval, all the while thinking.

"_So monster-kun comes back to his home…I'll give him a nice welcome back…hehe."_

On the other hand, just as the council finished deliberating, Naruto woke up, jolting up and jumping to the side. Looking frantically around to try and take a look at the surroundings, and understand where the hell he was. He took slow steps towards the windows of the office he was in, a pretty big office, and stared in the distance, at the village that was surrounded by trees. It was familiar, so much familiar that he was shivering and trying desperately not to remember why, but it was too late: all it took was the sight of the gate, the symbol of the leaf on it, and Naruto's eyes bulged for a brief second.

_Escape. Need to escape._

He dashed for the open window, jumping downwards and running on the roof, till he had to take the jump for the over one. That's when he felt a hand on his shoulder, belonging to a masked dog Anbu.

_You won't take me again!_

The Anbu was actually surprised by the sheer strength of the boy, but more than that, by the Anbu-class Taijutsu that the boy seemed to possess, as it grabbed the Dog-masked ninja by the wrist, and threw him over his shoulder, before keeping up his dash along the roof's side, jumping on the roof of another house.

The Anbu, recollecting his thoughts, decided to whistle for aid, and as a Bird-masked, Monkey-masked and Wolf-masked Anbu appeared, he pointed at the boy and they all nodded.

Naruto wasn't going to get captured again, no, he didn't want that, he didn't want three hours of sleep and the rest of training, he didn't want the cold water on the face, the bruises, the Taijutsu training that broke his bones, he didn't want that, no, he didn't want that!

The walls of the village were big enough, and probably trapped, to force Naruto to aim for the gate, but as he jumped mid-air to actually land on the ground, he was intercepted by the dog-masked Anbu, who proceeded to punch him in the stomach, while the Wolf-masked and the Bird-Masked Anbu appeared behind the boy, bringing him down on the ground, as the Monkey-masked one held a kunai in front of his face.

"Stop, in the name of the Hokage." The Dog-masked guy muttered, standing to the side of the Monkey-masked.

Naruto didn't speak, he needed a way out: he desperately needed a way out!

**You know…I could have helped you, but I don't want to. I'll enjoy thoroughly seeing you suffer, so next time, when I'll want to give you power, you won't call me a *liar*. **The Kyuubi chuckled, as the boy could do nothing except try, try to use his strength, but all he obtained back, as it was an Anbu hold, was to nearly break his own arms.

"Let. Me. Go!" he snapped.

"Still awake? I thought I'd hit him hard." The Dog-masked Anbu muttered, "Anyway, what were you doing in the Hokage's office, Kumo lapdog?"

_So it was his office?_

"I don't know!" Naruto yelled back, "let me go!"

"I say you can calm down, and we'll bring you back to the Hokage, and…"

"NO!" Naruto's eye remained blue, but his determination suddenly doubled, and the Anbu, well, he was forced to let got, as his hands turned numb.

"Huh?" before he could say anything, sparks of electricity flew in the air around the boy.

"Raiton: Kangekiha! Futon: Daitoppa! Naruto's special electric air blast!" as Naruto dashed forward, air sending the Anbu's flying away, electricity numbed their bodies, slowing down their reaction rates long enough for the boy to actually run towards the gates.

"Kami be damned!" the Dog-masked Anbu muttered a curse, as only his swift replacing with a log had saved him, and had left him the only one able to dash after the boy.

"Have to use it, after all," He muttered putting one hand under the mask, and then lifting the forehead protector, long enough for his only sharingan to see the light.

"Running time is over!" as he Shunshin'd straight in front of the boy, his eyes locked with those of the boy, before the boy fell on the ground, caught in a Genjutsu.

Dog-masked Anbu was puzzled, however, as he covered his sharingan once more…those eyes, they weren't those of a cold-blood murderer or Anbu from Kumo…those were the eyes of a scared kid who just wanted to leave.

_Sensei, just what have you done?_

**Author**'s notes

**Long chapter, didn't expect to turn out that long. Well, more heart-breaking to come! Did I already mention my muse hates me? **


	5. Attrition

Fifth Chapter

"Hatake-san did WHAT!" Kushina screeched, staring at Minato who looked sideways in shame, "and you, obviously, had to worsen it all." She added, "If I had known you'd use the Fuinjutsu to seal away his chakra, I would never have taught you how to make seals!" They were standing in the only sound proof room of the Namikaze compound, as Kushina had, at the very least, insisted to be there when Minato explained it all to Naruto. The boy was still knocked out cold by the Genjutsu that, coupled with his chakra being now sealed, made him a simple sleeping boy until someone else inputted Chakra into his brain to disrupt it.

"Kushina-hime, please, there was no choice! He knew how to do elemental jutsus, and he nearly outran the Anbus! Kakashi-kun himself said he'd have been caught, hadn't he had a lightning affinity to feel the change in his chakra nature! The boy managed to have an Anbu-class trained by me ninja use his own trump card, the sharingan, to take him down. I can't let him use chakra: he's not just any Genin!" Minato replied, pointing at the sleeping boy.

"So, what did the council decide on the matter?" Kushina queried back, sitting down on the side of the couch where the boy had been laid, to caress Naruto's hair.

"They accepted him staying in an apartment nearby, and they approved of us *taking back* one of your relatives, in that way, I justified him being close to us, and it will provide a good enough reason to why you outright snapped in fury in the land of waves." Minato replied softly, earning himself a *if a look could kill you'd be dead right now*.

"I did *not* snap in fury, I took my son back." Kushina replied, sternly, "and I'm already thinking I should just tell it to everyone and be done with it, Danzo be damned..." her gaze turned soft while looking at the boy's face.

"Kushina-hime…we must still wait Kumo's reply, you know...worst to worst, it might end up with him being brainwashed and used as a weapon by Danzo, if it ends in war." As Minato spoke, he suddenly ducked down, as a set of Chakra chains had appeared from Kushina's back, who was staring at her husband with fury.

"Get out of here before I murder you, Minato. Danzo will have to pass on my corpse if he wants MY son. Go and play politics or go be the Hokage, but LEAVE." Minato, not wanting to become a live porcupine, dashed for the exit, closing the door behind him, and stopping with a *Gah!* as he stared at the puzzled expression on Katsumi's face.

"Otou-san? Where is Okaa-san? I want to ask her if she can braid my hair!" as Katsumi said that, with a smile, her red hair let loose that reached shoulder length, her adorable pout coupled with her blue eyes, Minato ruffled her hair with a smile, and replied.

"Katsumi-chan, your Kaa-san is busy right now, and not of a good humor…how about we go, you and I, out for ramen?" as Minato said that, Katsumi's eyes sparkled, and, nodding, she dashed off to get ready.

As father and daughter left for the Ichiraku's stall, a mother was worriedly trying to come up with the right words.

"Naruto…I am your mother. I didn't know you were alive till now, and once I found you I simply couldn't leave you with the Kumo ninjas, your father is the Hokage, and, yeah, he did wound your Yugito-oneechan, but they were using you, you know! Yeah, treated you like a weapon! Yes, but I won't and neither will Minato, you'll have a normal life, and if you want, I know you like ramen so if you want you can open a ramen stand, eh? There's Ichiraku's ramen that's really good, yes, and then there's Ayame-chan who's a nice girl, she's homely and…just when did I end up on marriage agreements? No, no, calm down Kushina, you're the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero, you can do this, you can do this, it's not like you're on a S-class mission, you can't screw this up." As Kushina nervously fidgeted with her hair, walking in a straight line back and forth in front of Naruto's laying form, on the couch.

"Well…here goes." She muttered to herself, moving closer to Naruto's face, and then whispering softly: "Kai!"

For a moment, nothing happened, but Kushina knew that Naruto was awake, because he suddenly stiffened, trying his best to remain motionless.

"Na…Naruto-kun?" Kushina hesitantly asked the boy, who didn't reply, keeping his eyes closed, "Naruto-kun, please, open your eyes."

Naruto didn't move, however, he wasn't stupid. The Anbu had taken him, but if he stood very still, then they'd lower their guards, maybe. He just had to make sure they moved away from him, and then he'd be able to run. There was another reason he wasn't moving, he recognized the voice: it was from that woman who had attacked him, who had hit him with the chains, he didn't know why, but she knew his name, his real name, and when he had turned around she had attacked them, even Yugito-oneechan hadn't been able to defeat her, and right now, he felt weak. He felt really, really weak.

"Naruto-kun, please, open your eyes," there was something wet on his right cheek now, a droplet of water, then another, and another one, as he realized the woman wouldn't leave, he slowly opened his eyes, to see the red-haired woman looking down on him, as he was laying on a couch and she was standing, her arms on the side of his head, and her crying face over him.

She gasped, when she saw him open his eyes, and then she did something Naruto didn't expect her to: she simply hugged him tightly, crying on his shoulder. This was wrong: he was the one meant to yell at Kami for having brought him into another hellish suffering, for having handed him over to the Anbu once more, he should be the one crying and lamenting his fate. The woman had no reason to cry, but he couldn't feel anger, he couldn't feel much, he just felt…spent, void.

"Naruto…my Naruto," she whispered, still crying, as she held him in a hug, why *my*? He wasn't *hers*, he belonged to Kumo he wasn't…oh! He had become an object once more: he was a weapon, right? Now he was her weapon maybe? He didn't want to, but he couldn't do much, he felt so weak in that moment, so feeble.

"I…I'm sure you have a lot of questions in your mind…" Kushina whispered, as she slowly broke the hug, sitting down on the side of the couch, "so...I'll do my best to answer them, 'ttebayo."

Naruto stood silent for a moment, he didn't have questions, he knew he was in Konoha, the place that made him cry in the night and that made his very soul refuse to stay there a second more, and he knew that he had been kidnapped, probably because of his father, the Raikage, but he'd die rather than let his father be forced into something because of him. He couldn't escape: probably the Anbus were still there, watching him. He had no choice, he had to wait, and hope his forehead protector was…

Naruto slowly touched his forehead, realizing it was missing his Kumo headband, and staring at the woman, now he actually had a question.

"Where?" he whispered, pointing at his forehead, there was his first birthday gift in there! The chakra metal pocket knife was his first birthday gift! The first gift! If they took it…he…he didn't know, was he still worthy of getting gifts, since he had been kidnapped? Would otou-san still want him back? Would Yugito-chan not hate him for getting wounded? It was his fault, his fault it all happened.

"The Kumo…headband," as Kushina spoke, she slowly tensed, thinking about how Kumo had tried to kidnap her once, and instead they had managed, later on, to kidnap her son, "has been trashed." Naruto's eyes bulged, but he said nothing, he now had to take it back.

"The…" he muttered. He didn't know how to start the question.

"The pocket knife inside the headband is fine. I'll hold onto it until you're old enough to know how to use it." Kushina replied, trying to be stern on the matter, those Kumo idiots handing a knife over to her child! They had probably trained him in it, they and their wanting a *perfect weapon*.

Naruto's eyes bulged, and then began getting watery…how could she do that to him? It was HIS gift!

"Don't look at me with…" Kushina bit her lower lip, staring at the sight of the child, who was on the verge of tears, "fine. If you promise to be good, I'll give it to you tonight." As she said that, the boy nodded, and she cursed herself for being weak to puppy-eyes.

"You don't have any questions to ask me?" as Kushina asked that, once more, Naruto shook his head. He understood nothing, except that they wanted him as a political pawn for Kumo, and he would rather die than let Konoha ruin the life of Kumo and its citizen.

He realized it then, as he tried to harness chakra into his fingers: Nothing was happening. It was like when he had been in the snow country, but he didn't see any mechanical devices on him. This was strange, but expected. They wouldn't want a weapon to run around freely, right? They needed a scabbard for him.

"I…well," Kushina fidgeted, "My name is Kushina Uzumaki," she said, as Naruto stared at her perplexed, why was she presenting herself once more?, "and you're…well, you're Naruto Uzumaki, my son."

Naruto stared at her for a moment. Did his Otou-san have a bee and a flower with her? At least, that's what Killer B had said, but then, he'd never seen her pictures on his father's desk, so…she could be lying. She was lying. That was it, the bitch was going down, if only he'd get his hands on his knife, he'd tear her throat open for having tried to claim that his Otou-san and her had done something, nobody offended the Raikage!

"I…I know you might be angry," Kushina muttered, staring at the face of her son turning into a shocked scowl, "but you must listen till the end, okay?" as she asked that, Naruto nodded, slowly, while his eyes gazed around in search for the window, there had to be a window in the room, but as it turned out, there wasn't. There was a light on the ceiling though.

"I'm your mother, I gave birth to you on the tenth of October, when the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, your father," Kushina whispered, "that damn bastard, Minato Namikaze," wait, Otou-san was A, the Raikage, not this *Minato Namikaze*, whose name was familiar, from where? Oh, yeah, history lessons…he was the enemy of the Raikage, the only one to go toe to toe against him in battle, and…the fourth Hokage, "Who is still my husband; though I'm planning on changing that, eventually, took you from the hospital I was laying in, and brought you to the frontline. He wanted to use you as a container for the Kyuubi, but instead, the third Hokage barged in, knocking him out cold, and taking his place in the sacrifice that the sealing technique required…then," Kushina was seething with rage, "instead of bringing you back into my arms, he decided it would be in the best interest of everyone to hide your birth, and have you raised in an orphanage…and I was told you had died at childbirth." Naruto stared at the woman, as a lie, it was well made, but even if it wasn't what changed? He didn't belong to Konoha, he was a ninja of Kumo, the Raikage would come back for him...he would, right?

"Then I met you again, but fate that day was unkind," her face turned sadder, as she caressed Naruto's right cheek, a thing that made the boy shiver in fright, "I don't know if you remember me, but I was the woman who took you out from under Ayame-chan's bed, and I even gave you ramen, you know," she chuckled at the memory, before speaking once more, with a more grievous tone, "but then, when I got back from my mission, I couldn't find you at Ichiraku's, nor around town…I wanted to speak with you some more, but all I had of you wasn't even a name…until I found the jumpsuit in the corner of a street, near the Uchiha compound…where they had all been killed while I was on a mission, so I thought… I thought you had died in the crossfire," as Kushina started sobbing, she actually hugged tightly once more Naruto, who stiffened, why was this woman so emotional? He wasn't *her* son! HE was the Raikage's one! "And then…I found out that Danzo had taken you in," at the word, he shivered, closing himself into a fetal position, no, not Danzo, Danzo was…he had…no, no, and NO.

"Naruto?" Kushina had let Naruto go, when he had started paling and shivering, and she simply stared surprised, but saddened, in seeing just how much *one year* of Root training had impacted on the boy, who was as pale as white could be, and holding himself in fetal position.

"Naruto!" Kushina hugged her son once more, gently caressing his hair, which was still dark, Anbu-class camouflage, no doubt, as she could see now, clearly, that the base of the hair was blond, "it's all over, trust me, it's all over, Danzo won't take you away from me ever again, no-one will." NO! He wanted to be taken away by the Raikage! Or Yugito-oneechan, or Killer B, or Darui, Karui, C, or heck, even Yoko or Shoko or anyone, anyone at all that would bring him back to Kumo.

"I want…to go home." Naruto whimpered, as Kushina looked at him for a moment, before shaking her head, no, it would take time, she had been a stupid to rush it, to him she was just a shinobi from an enemy village who had kidnapped him, she needed to takes thing slower.

"Ne, Naruto-kun, you know those chakra chains you made?" at the mention of chakra chains, Naruto shivered, he remembered the one that had passed him from side to side like it was nothing, he remembered the pain.

"They're something only an Uzumaki can do…that's why you're clearly my son, Naruto, you can do it too." So it was his fault. If he hadn't been able to, he wouldn't have brought this down on him. He was sure that, right then, Yugito hated him, as did everyone else, even his father was probably walking up and down, smashing desks, claiming how useless of a son he was.

"What…what happens to me now?" he whispered, he doubted he'd have to be kept on the couch for the rest of his imprisonment.

"Well, I'm sure you're hungry, Naruto-kun…so, how about we go and eat some Ramen? Huh? It's my treat, and then, I'll show you the apartment the Hokage has bought for you, it's nearby, trust me, and if you'll ever need something, you can run over here quickly, and I'll always be here for you." Kushina spoke slowly, as Naruto's blue eyes stared into hers, he whispered.

"Uzumaki-san, can I have my…" Naruto whispered, but was shot down by Kushina's stare.

"By tonight, and only if you call me K...Kushina-san, got it, 'ttebayo?" he couldn't start calling her Kaa-san immediately, it was something she wanted, but she yet couldn't ask him that, not at the moment, but step by step, maybe...

"I…I understand, Kushina-san." Naruto mumbled back, and, with a wide grin, Kushina grabbed him and brought him up on his feet, holding tightly onto his right hand, as they made their way out.

"Oh, Naruto-kun, when we're outside, you must tell no-one who your parents are, okay? It would be bad if you did." As Kushina pointed that out, just as she was getting the keys, Naruto nodded. This was Konoha, if they knew he was the Raikage's son it would turn out bad. As they left, Naruto started looking around, searching for where the bins were and realizing, to his dismay, that the garbage had already been collected for the day: this meant he'd have to stay awake all night long…he needed to find the garbage dump, and from there, look for his headband.

Naruto was washed with different feelings, as he saw the people stop by and wave at Kushina, using the *sama* expression, and actually smiling at him too, probably because of the hair color. Maybe he should keep it that way? He stopped when Kushina stopped too, as she was taking a deep breath. She then entered the ramen stand, considering that, next to two empty seat, stood a pretty concentrated on the food Minato and Katsumi.

Naruto sat down quietly, next to Kushina, while Kushina chuckled, waiting for the duo to recognize her.

"Oh, Kushina-chan!" Ayame chirped, earning thus the attention of both Katsumi and Minato.

"Kaa-san!" Katsumi exclaimed, happily, and then looking perplexed at the young raven-haired boy with blue eyes next to her mother, "Who is he?" she asked.

"Kushina-hime…" Minato muttered, slightly nervous, but getting back only a cold-hearted stare as his wife turned to speak to her daughter.

"This is Naruto Uzumaki, Katsumi: he's a distant relative of mine from Uzushiogakure the village of whirlpools that was destroyed years and years ago. He's just arrived in the village, so, please be friends with him at the academy." Kushina felt a pang of guilt in her heart, as she said that, but her daughter would probably understand, later on.

Katsumi nodded, then, smiling at Naruto, she said:

"Nice to meet you Naruto-kun! Will you be at the academy starting tomorrow?" as she asked that, Minato sighed in relief, but then realized that Naruto wasn't answering, but staring at him, with a puzzled expression.

"No, but he will be attending starting the day after tomorrow Katsumi-chan." Minato replied, trying to make a smile, but getting back only a hardened stare, it was like a sudden ripple of tension in the air, the boy didn't like him, at all.

"Kushina-chan, the usual Salt Ramen? And what about you, young one?" as Ayame said that, Naruto looked at the girl with a puzzled expression, he recalled her from somewhere, but he couldn't quite…he looked once more at Katsumi-chan, who was wearing a bright orange shirt with dark blue pants, and something clicked in.

"Oh…" Naruto looked at the menu, and then, he didn't even know why he should be polite with his kidnappers to begin with, he ordered the least expensive ramen on the menu.

He was just a good boy, the Raikage used to say that too, as he repressed the need to cry in a corner, but he was a ninja from Kumo, no matter what, a ninja from Kumo doesn't cry, or shiver, that was what Yugito-oneechan used to tell him, so he had already cried before, he wouldn't cry again.

First off, act like a good boy, get the knife back, secondly try and get the headband back, then die like a Kumo shinobi, bringing down as many as possible with him.

He ate in silence, albeit Katsumi actually kept bombarding him with questions, it was either Kushina or Minato who answered her, while he said nothing, eating in silence and slowly. He liked the ramen here, it wasn't bitter at all like Hakkaku's but still, he couldn't gulp it down quickly, or they'd ask him if he wanted another one. Katsumi and Kushina had already gone over their fifth bowl, when Minato stood up and paid Teuchi, before hand-waving to Naruto to go with him, earning himself a murderous glare from Kushina.

"I'm bringing the boy to see his house: I'm the one with the keys after all." As Minato said that, Kushina kept glancing at Naruto, with a saddened expression, as he left together with the fourth Hokage, Naruto actually turned back for a moment, with a perplexed expression, but then, with a bitter smile, turned back to follow the Hokage, he shouldn't have expected the woman to give him back his knife, she had lied to him, obviously...

They reached a small apartment complex, which had the stairs on the outside, and, reaching for the upper floor, the furthest up, Minato inserted the keys into a green colored door, that opened to reveal a nice three room apartment. The first one gave directly into the *general purpose* room, there was just a small bed, and a couch that had probably seen the war, and survived it too, then there was the kitchen which had, surprising him, a working fridge, and then finally there was the bathroom, which seemed to have a shower-bath. The trip had been in utter silence on Naruto's side, who hadn't replied to any of the Hokage's tries in breaking the ice with the boy, who had simply stared at him with cold eyes.

"Well…do you like it?" he asked, once more.

"My headband," Naruto replied, monotonous in his voice.

"It was thrown away, it's probably at the garbage dump of Konoha," Minato replied, "You'll have another one in a year, with the leaf symbol, if you pass the academy, I even wonder why they let you in one year sooner in the Kumo academy."

As it turned out, one year in Root was nearly the same as the entire academic year in Kumo, but Naruto didn't want to pass over the rest of the students, and he actually *wanted* to be like the others. That's why he had insisted on going to the academy, albeit starting one year sooner than the rest.

"I belong to Kumo," Naruto turned around, his gaze steeling himself, and staring straight into the eyes of the Hokage, "I will only have a Kumo headband on my forehead."

"That's only because they brainwashed you. Tomorrow afternoon you'll speak with two friends who will remove any brainwashing attempt that has been made on you." Minato replied, carefully, the boy didn't seem moved by any of his words, he was the Hokage, he was meant to at the very least earn a reaction from the boy!

"Am I free to leave the village?" Naruto queried.

"No," the reply, while expected, hit Naruto like a rock, "you will be, and are guarded, twenty-four hours a day by Anbus, to make sure you are kept safe."

_Spied upon would be a better definition._ Naruto thought.

"And finally, your fridge and the kitchen in general are stocked for a few days, tomorrow, after a talk with my two friends, you'll be given your monthly allowance, it should be enough to make you survive from month to month, if you spend it wisely. If you do pass the academy, you will be kept under surveillance even while you do your team's assignment…if you try and fail the academy, know that you will never leave the village, and you'll enter the Anbu's program." Minato didn't like menacing the boy, who, however, shivered at the words he spoke for the first time since they had met. Anbus scared him: that was good to know.

"Is there anything you want to ask?" the Yondaime Hokage queried slowly, and Naruto nodded back.

"Can I…write to…" he hazarded.

"No: anything else?" Minato replied sternly.

"Why did you do this to me?" he asked, simply, with a hurt tone, as he stared with sadness in his eyes at the Fourth Hokage, who, for once, didn't know what to answer.

"I had to make a choice, either you or your sister. Since at childbirth, you know bees and flowers, right?" Naruto nodded, "well, since at childbirth the seal weakens, you were the safest option."

Naruto shook his head: he didn't want to ask that.

"Why did you kidnap me?" he asked once more, hoping it was clearer.

"I didn't kidnap you. I took you back home." And, at that moment, The Hokage raised his right hand to stop the kid's fist, which came against him weak as it could possibly be, as tears fell down Naruto's eyes.

"THIS WILL NEVER BE MY HOME!" Minato sighed, pushing the boy down and turning to leave.

"You will change your mind, eventually, Naruto-kun. Till then, have a nice night of rest, tomorrow afternoon I'll personally come to pick you up and bring you to meet my friends." With that, the fourth Hokage left the crying boy alone in the apartment, leaving the keys on the couch and closing the door behind him.

Naruto cried until he no longer had tears to cry, and then, silently, he slapped himself on the right cheek. He moved swiftly, closing the curtains, and realizing that the small dash had simply taken its toll on his lungs.

"Already?" he muttered, shaking his head. "Done something to me, what?" He muttered his curses as he closed every window and curtain he could find, leaving the room in a pitch-black darkness, before moving to the bathroom, where he took off his clothes, and sighed. Not even a razor in there.

He could have died quickly, but right then, he wanted to prove the Hokage wrong. Thoughts of how he'd mercilessly crush and destroy him, of how he'd feast on his blood, ran through his head while he thanked Kami that the water was at least lukewarm. He dipped in, sighing deeply, as he submerged himself, head included, after realizing there was a strange tattoo on his right arm.

He stood underneath the water for a couple of minutes, slowly letting his hear slowing down, as he started feeling his consciousness fade: until he felt the familiar tremor of footsteps moving closer and then stopping.

He silently opened his eyes, staring underneath the water surface at the Dog-masked Anbu, who looked surprised, at having been conned into coming out from his hiding spot.

Naruto slowly emerged from the water, coughing the liquid out of his lungs, and staring with a small smile at the Anbu.

"I would advise against forcing us to break into your room, Naruto-kun, or attempting suicide." The Anbu spoke slowly, earning himself a chuckle as a reply.

"I don't care. I just wanted to know something, before you bastards kept acting like the Hokage's damn frigging lapdogs." As he spoke that with hate, and venom in his voice, he slowly added, "I know what I am, and I know that you know. The civilians know that too, obviously. So, if they'll attack me, will you break the mob?"

"We have orders to guard you from lethal injuries: we take shifts, so some of us might break the mob sooner, while others might not." The Dog-masked Anbu was slightly pissed. This was anything but the sensei's son, maybe he should place him under a Genjutsu directly through the sharingan, to make him behave?

"And I guess I have to man up and take the blows like a goody two shoes bastard, right?" Naruto replied, shaking his head, "I don't know who you are, but know this: I am a ninja of Kumo, I don't know what the hell you did that prevents me from using chakra, but I can be pretty lethal even with a stone in my hand. So let's make this clear: I will answer with lethal force, should any bastard try and hit me. So share the news around: you either stop them soon, or you take their corpses off the road."

Kakashi would have chuckled at such an ill-attempt at making menaces, but he couldn't, he saw the gaze of the boy: he had seen a lot of eyes, but never had he seen them change so swiftly, from the morning, when it was nothing more than a kid trying to escape, to now, where they looked like a cold-blooded murderer.

"And one final thing: don't call me Naruto," he muttered with ill-repressed anger, "I am Monster."

*Konoha-next day*

Monster had woken up in the bed, and was hearing a strange noise coming from the kitchen, of cutlery moving and of a female voice humming a happy tune. He looked around and sighed, no, it hadn't been a bad nightmare. This wasn't his home in Kumo: this was that hellish hole of Konoha.

He slowly slid out of the bed's only paper thin sheet, and groggily looked at his clothes, which stood in tatters on the couch. He had tried, after the refreshing talk with the Dog-masked Anbu, to find out where the garbage general area was, and unluckily, he had discovered by the movement of the cleaning guys, that it was out of the city, and he couldn't go outside. His clothes, on the other hand, had already gone past the cleaning time, and considering they even had a hole, straight in the stomach area, it was better not to use them. So he was without clothes. He'd probably wait for the damn Hokage to knock at his door, so he could insult him some more. Still, the voice in the kitchen didn't seem to be from the Hokage, unless the Hokage actually was a female.

He sighed, the trousers, at least, were useable. As he put them on, he heard the footsteps moving from the kitchen back to where he was, and the red-haired woman, Kushina, if he recalled her name correctly, the woman who said she was his mother, smiling at him.

"Naruto-kun, sorry I barged in, but I thought you'd like to have breakfast cooked in your first morning in Konoha." Was she taking him for a spoiled brat? He could cook just fine! He had to learn how to, since Yugito, no matter what, was completely unable to handle anything more than putting water and instant ramen together, while Darui never cooked, Killer B never, ever was left to go near any and all cooking utensil, and C, while a good cook, only rarely did so…so he had learned how to cook, and he knew how to cook.

Still, he had to act like the good boy, right? That was the deal to get his knife back. He had thought that maybe she'd give it to him last night, but then again, she'd probably give it to him in the morning, if he acted nice.

"…thank you." He muttered, as he looked with a puzzled expression at his clothes, letting his finger pass through the hole, which had some dried blood on it, his dried blood on it, in an effort to think if he could stitch it. He had no needle and no strings, however.

"Oh…you don't have any other clothing?" as she asked that, Kushina would have wanted to grab the scorching hot frying pan and hit herself with it: obviously he hadn't, they basically kidnapped him!

"No." He replied, shrugging.

"Would you like it…if we went to buy some clothes for you, in the afternoon, 'ttebayo?" she asked, hopeful.

"Can I get my knife back if I do?" Naruto replied, as Kushina's face turned like that of a ball-fish.

"Your pocket knife! I…I forgot it at home! Oh Kami…I'm sorry, I'll get it for you this afternoon, just be good all morning, okay?" she was sorry: at least, she looked sincerely sorry. She then took a quick glance at her watch and gasped.

"Oh Kami! I'm going to be late! Sorry Naruto-kun, we'll see each other this afternoon okay?" with that, she dashed off.

Naruto didn't want to be mean, but considering that both the Hokage and his wife wanted him in the afternoon, he didn't say anything, let them sort each other out: he'd simply try and take a walk around. The nice smell coming from the kitchen, however, made him first head over the room were a quite extravagant breakfast stood, and a message on the table, probably if he didn't wake up with her in the house and queried to Kami why there would be breakfast on the table.

_Naruto, I prepared breakfast for you, didn't know what you liked, so just write it down with the pen. _That explained the large amount of food, which still Naruto had no trouble eating. He grabbed the pen, looking at it for a moment…if only he could use chakra, he could try Killer B's trick with lightning chakra and a pen.

He stared at the now empty platters, and more on reflex, he washed them off, before writing down a reply.

_I enjoy anything which can send me back to Kumo faster._

Then, just to prove the point, he stabbed the pen down on the note, before turning around to leave through the door. He was slowly getting more pissed than ever, at the sight of the people walking, smiling, and generally not caring. Still, he was a ninja, so he had better train, *academy* his frigging…

"Calm down." He muttered to himself, taking a deep breath.

"Just stay calm, the moment will come…calm down." Taking a final breath, he decided to stroll around, until he found an empty training ground.

He looked around for a moment, then, as he realized that nobody was actually using it, decided to start doing push-ups.

Dog-masked Anbu, also known as Kakashi Hatake, copy-cat ninja, stood perched on a tree branch, hidden in the shadows, as he watched his *target* do push-ups. He sighed, taking out his copy of Icha-Icha paradise, and slowly began reading it without a qualm. His sensei had insisted on him hand-picking a couple of trusted Anbu to keep an eye out on the boy, but he kind of wondered what the need was: he didn't want to be in Konoha, nothing would change his idea, and eventually he'd managed to slip through and leave. It wouldn't take him much, and he kind of pitied whoever would end up having *him* as a member of a team, he wouldn't work with them: he'd outright try to kill them, or escape. Sure, he was without chakra, but what about having to do the school's exams? Unless Minato-sensei expected the boy to turn to love Konoha in a matter of days, eventually the Ninjutsu portion of the lessons would be covered, and he'd have to participate into it. The boy had managed to bypass an Anbu hold with pure lightning chakra and wind chakra, and the two were natural enemies! He didn't know wherever he'd want the boy under his wing to train him, because he clearly was a natural, or wherever he should ask that he'd be sent back to Kumo in the immediate. It was at that moment, however, that Kakashi heard a too familiar *YOSH*.

"Gai-sensei! Look at that youthful student!" A green spandex clad bushy browed guy spoke, which made Naruto actually jump on his feet and stare, surprised, at what looked like a sort of mutant offspring of an even bigger green spandex clad bushy browed man.

"Lee-kun! You are right! The flames of youth burn brightly in this boy!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee-kun!"

As the two got closer, a sort of *morning sun* rose from behind their back, as Naruto, on the other hand, sighed. Still, they both had their forehead protectors, of Konoha.

"So, youthful kid, what is your name?" as Gai queried that, moving closer, he already knew it: sooner that morning all the Jounin-level ninjas had been informed of the new *addition* to the Konoha village, but he was surprised to see that the *fabled* Kyuubi Jinchuuriki was nothing more than a boy, a slightly weak-looking one at that.

"Monster," Naruto muttered, with a nod.

"That is a nickname! But it's a nice coincidence! For I am the great and beautiful and charismatic green beast of Konoha!", as Gai said that, with a wide smile, Naruto raised his right eyebrow. The man was strange, but…

Naruto chuckled.

"Are you laughing at Gai-sensei flame of youth!" Lee said, slightly angry, but stopped when he saw Naruto shaking his head.

"You're nice!" as he said that, Kakashi was the one surprised, what did the boy mean with that?

Gai actually blushed, before laughing.

"Ah! Then the flame of youth burns brightly into you too!"

"Yosh! Gai-sensei, let us celebrate by running around Konoha twenty times!"

"Can I come too?" as Naruto asked that, Gai actually smiled even more.

"SURE! Lee, rejoice, for you have a new sparring partner!"

"YOSH!" Fire appeared into Lee's eyes, "We will train until the sun sets!"

"Until the moon shines brightly!" Gai-sensei replied.

"Yosh!" Naruto replied, smiling even more, and mimicking the other two movements.

Kakashi…he obviously didn't buy it, the smile was a fake one, but wherever Gai had realized it or not, he shrugged, he'd still keep an eye out on the boy.

"Then let's get started!" with that, Naruto actually got new clothes. Sure, they were green, with orange arm and leg warmers, but they were clothes.

He tired out sooner than expected, but later than what both Gai, and Lee, had thought at first glance.

"You can stop for today, Monster-kun! We'll keep going tomorrow, same place same hour of today! Rekindle your flame of youth with food and rest!" as he said that, Gai-sensei dashed off in the distance, followed by Lee.

Naruto, on the other hand looked up at the sky, and sighed, he hadn't managed to avoid going to meet his father's *friends*. Brainwashed, him? They were the one who had brainwashed him. Though he shook his head, no, he wasn't going to meet his father's friends: he was going to meet the Hokage's friends, whoever they were or whatever they wanted.

As he slowly got to the door he sighed, realizing it had been opened. Entering, he expected already his *mother* to be inside, but instead, he was surprised.

Written with pig blood, there were writings on the walls like *Monster go and die*, *Suffer!*, *Demons need nothing!* everything had been trashed or destroyed, and the kitchen wasn't in such a nice state either, though the bloc notes and the pen were missing, Naruto shrugged at everything, even at the clogged toilet. He kind of wondered why they were insisting on it: he didn't want to be there! Why did they think he wanted to! He was on the verge of a mental breakdown, he didn't want to be there and the people didn't want him to be there: then why did they insist on him being there!

He could have washed the floor, clean the mess, maybe he would have been able to clean everything by the time the Hokage would come and pick him up, but he didn't want to. So, he simply waited, sitting in a corner of the room, until the Dog-masked Anbu actually came in from the door that Naruto had left a little bit open.

"…do you like ramen?" Now, that was something Naruto wasn't expecting from the Anbu.

"Yes." He whispered back, slowly.

"Would you like some?" the Dog-masked Anbu asked again.

"Otou-san says I shouldn't speak with strangers who wear masks." Naruto replied, bitterly.

"Anbu protocol says I shouldn't remove my mask and say my name to avoid recognition." The Dog-masked Anbu replied.

"And how are you going to eat ramen with a mask, huh?" Naruto retorted, earning himself a chuckle from the Anbu.

"You actually got me: I wasn't planning on eating ramen together with you."

"Then I won't come: if you offer, you must partake…it's your money after all." Naruto replied slowly.

"I'm pretty sure I can file this under an Anbu expense, trust me on this, Monster-kun." The Dog-masked Anbu replied.

"Who pays for the Anbu expenses?" Naruto queried, slowly getting up.

"The Hokage," Kakashi had a feeling this was going to bite him later on though.

"Let's go then." Naruto replied, serious this time.

"Is that the only clothing you have?" Kakashi asked surprised, as the boy was in a green spandex suit, and he had already enough of *green beast* with Gai.

"The other is torn, tattered, and bloodied. This at least isn't." Naruto replied.

"Good enough." With that, as the two moved in silence towards Ichiraku's ramen, the remaining Anbus sighed, as they had a mess to clean before the Hokage came by.

Said Hokage was actually in the process of reading a really angry and resentful letter…written by Jiraiya.

_Minato, I am deeply ashamed of your actions as my student! _

_While I can understand the reason of the heart, what was your damn brain thinking in that moment? The Raikage is furious! I'm in the same room with him! Land of Iron, meeting at the three wolves mountain, four days from now. I'll reverse summon you, but be damn ready with your words, because the Raikage *is* pissed. A lot pissed._

Minato sighed, not one good thing happening to him as of the day. Shaking his head, he decided he might as well head out to grab a bite and see how Naruto would like having lunch with his father. Probably he would accept only out of the free food, while keeping a cold demeanor. As Minato reached for the door of Naruto's apartment, he found it already opened, and, peeking inside, was surprised to see the Anbus assigned to keep an eye out on the boy, except Kakashi, being in the process of cleaning up the rooms, repainting the walls and washing the floor. The Anbus stopped to stare at their Hokage, and for a second, no-one said a word. Then, in the blink of a Shunshin, the Anbus were on their knees, exclaiming.

"Hokage-sama!"

"…what happened here?" as the question was being asked, the chief Anbu was about to explain, only for him to stop, as it hadn't come from the Hokage's mouth, but from the one behind him, belonging to the Hokage's wife, who was staring at the scene in front of him with a shocked expression. She was carrying groceries, and it was quite probable that she had wanted to do the same thing as Minato: invite the boy over for lunch.

"Kushina-hime, I was just about to ask." As Minato made a hand sign to the Anbu to start talking, the ninja nodded, reporting.

"Hai! Hokage-sama, we kept a close eye on Naruto Uzumaki's movement thorough the day, as requested, after meeting with Jounin-sensei Maito Gai, and one of his genin students, they began training in the earnest, the Jounin-sensei going as far as handing over training equipment, and weights, to the young boy, and then by the time he got back here the…mess you see, happened. Dog-mask is providing distraction in the form of lunch while we clean up the mess."

"Dog-mask? Anbu guarding Naruto-kun?" Kushina's small smile was charged with evil intentions, that much, Minato and the Anbus realized.

"It's to be sure he doesn't escape…well, you're dismissed. See to it that the apartment is cleaned completely." With that, Minato turned to leave, Kushina actually following in tow, while the Anbus sighed, having avoided the Hokage's wrath, and, chuckling, they thanked Kami not to be subjected to the Hokage's wife wrath.

"Why did you do this? Anbu guards? You said the Anbu patrols would be enough!" Kushina muttered, grabbing Minato by the arm and holding him tightly, so he wouldn't try and escape.

"Ouch, Kushina-hime, you must understand that it was for his own good: Danzo," he whispered back, "might have still some strings, and if he kidnaps him again, then he'd certainly be far more careful than before."

Kushina's eyes narrowed, as he pinched Minato's arm strongly.

"Have you spoken to Jiraiya-san about Naruto? It would be safe with him in Konoha, you know, a legendary Sannin as a bodyguard…would be far better than Anbus taking turns."

"Concerning Jiraiya-sensei…in four days I'll be leaving for the Lands of Iron, to speak with the Raikage, turns out Jiraiya was there too…in the Raikage's office." As Minato spoke slowly, Kushina's eyes watered.

"Oh…if only I had waited…no. What is done is done." Kushina's gaze turned stern, once more, as she clenched her fists.

"Listen, I'm sure everything will turn out fine, and a war will be avoided, but if it isn't the case…" as Minato spoke, "then I will have to do what is best for the village, you understand?"

"And I will do what is best for my son, Minato, even if it means betraying the village," as Kushina whispered that, Minato's eyes bulged in shock, but the Hokage said nothing.

"I understand." He whispered back.

As they reached for the ramen stand, they saw a Dog-masked Anbu sitting down, reading a Icha-Icha paradise novel, while next to him Naruto was…at his seventeenth bowl.

The Anbu seemed not to care in the slightest, as he had already said to put everything on the Anbu's headquarters expenses.

"Naruto-kun." As Kushina actually watched in surprise what quantity of Ramen Naruto could actually eat, the boy stopped for a moment, turned around, and then raised an eyebrow.

"Afraid I was going to run away from this prison, Hokage-sama?"

"No. I was expecting you to come see me for the sorry state your apartment is in." Minato replied, gritting his teeth.

"Naruto-kun, if you want you can sleep at the Namikaze mansion, there's a guest room there." As Kushina suggested that, Naruto shook his head.

"Thanks, but I'd rather keep staying in the Monster's den that this prison offers me, so, Hokage-sama, where are your two friends that want to brainwash me?" as he said that, he jumped off the seat, eying only Minato, ignoring completely Kushina's face that had gone sorrowful over his harsh words.

"They are *not* going to brainwash you, but they will certainly get you back into your rightful state of mind." As Minato muttered that, he turned around, harshly starting to walk and silently expecting Naruto to refuse, so that he could at least get a good punch in. Unluckily, the boy followed, completely ignoring Kushina who was on the verge of tears.

"Thanks for the meal Dog-mask-san!" were the last words of Naruto, before turning a corner, and disappearing from sight.

*Kumo-four days later*

"Yugito-oneechan! I'm home!" Naruto jumped straight into the arms of the Nibi Jinchuuriki, who smiled back at the blond-haired boy, hugging him tightly, and bursting into tears. Until she heard the rattling of the chains, "I'll protect you, Yugito-oneechan!" Naruto said, then it all came in a barrage of scenes, the bridge, the fog, the chain piercing through a happy and smiling Naruto who was trying to protect her, tell her everything was okay, the blood, him being taken away by the darkness, the hands of the Hachibi too slow to do anything: the rattling of the chains.

"Oneechan…I trusted you." Again the rattling, again Naruto tied and shackled in a cellar getting hit repeatedly, getting burned, maimed, and exhaling his last breath.

Yugito Nii woke up with a cry, in the deep of the night, and began shaking violently. She stood up, looking at the clock that marked not even three in the morning. She had swiftly dressed up, hoping that it was a lie, that Naruto hadn't been kidnapped by the Hokage himself and his whore of a wife, that she had been weak, and she had lost the boy who was like a brother to her, and she couldn't protect him. She slowly moved down the corridor, to where Naruto's room was, and slowly, she slowly opened it, before closing it up once more. No, it was empty, Naruto wasn't there. It wasn't a nightmare. They had taken the boy in such a gruesome way, and now he was probably being tortured, brainwashed, or even worst, and maybe he was being turned into a weapon, or outright killed to let someone else claim the Kyuubi, his body laid to rot somewhere in a grave without a name.

She shook her head, trying to keep the tears from falling down her cheeks, when she heard the door behind her open slowly.

"Heya. Bit late at night, went for milk, Cat?" Killer B had actually stopped rapping: he had vowed to start again only after receiving a fist-bump from Naruto, and not before.

"Why can't we go and save him, B?" Yugito replied, turning around, her eyes red, facing the Hachibi's Jinchuuriki, who had a saddened expression on his face.

"Bro's got it tougher: he can't wage war for the kid, as he wasn't actually village-less when we found him…"

"They used him as an anger-reliever and forced him to such points that he called himself monster!" Yugito exclaimed back, tears starting to water her eyes once more.

"But he was of Konoha, we took him in for pity, and then he grew on us, and we grew on him, I'm sure that he'll choose us in five years, trust me."

"But why did the Raikage accept that! Why!" Yugito knew it, it hadn't been the first time she had asked the question, nor the first time B had answered her, but she simply couldn't help but ask again, every time hoping the answer would be something she could counter against.

"Would Naruto have been happy to know a war was waged for him? Huh? That would have worsened things up…and they would have probably turned him into a weapon straight off the bat or killed him to make a point and give the Kyuubi to someone else. Instead, since both Kumo and…"

"Don't say that name!" Yugito snapped.

"that other village had pretty bloody defenses and offenses, they came to a deal: Naruto is a political hostage until he turns an adult, then he gets to choose…in two years, there are going to be the Chuunin exams, and we are going to be there as the guards of the Raikage, and we'll have our teams participate, so we'll check on the brat. We can even write to him, so everything will be fine, you should trust Naruto...he'll make the right choice."

"That doesn't mean anything…what if they control him?" Yugito asked back, worried, "What if they do something bad to him, like torture, or…"

"He's a ninja from Kumo, Yugito-chan: he can defend himself, got it? And the land of Iron has said they'd send a specialist to make sure he isn't controlled when he makes his choice."

"It's still two years before we even see him again, B-sensei…what if he comes to hate us? To hate me for not having saved him from them? They…" her words died in her mouth, as B chuckled and raised his right fist.

"Fist-bump promise: if Naruto really hates any of us, when we see him again, then I'll burn all my rhyme books."

Yugito smiled, and raised her own fist to close the deal.

*Konoha*

Naruto hadn't been brainwashed. Nor had they found out he had been brainwashed. This didn't change the fact that he had to wait four days before having, finally, his chakra seal removed. He had to smile and keep promising he wouldn't use the opportunity to run away, and that he'd actually go to school. He hadn't gone to school for all the days he had kept the chakra seal on, making it clear that it was a package deal: either he was completely left in peace, or he would do as he liked, since he *had* passed the Kumo academy, he'd probably have no troubles with the Konoha one. The Hokage had been difficult to convince, and being in a hurry to leave on the fourth day, he had finally promised him he'd get it removed when he came back, if he kept his part of the deal and stayed *good*.

Till then, he had trained together with Gai-sensei and his student, Lee. The two were strange, but that was their strong point. Being strange meant they weren't doing what they were doing with another purpose, and he had gotten Taijutsu lessons for free, the only thing he could actually train on with the chakra seal in place. He had refused any contact except the necessary ones with both Kushina, who still managed to get into his apartment every morning, but had yet to hand him over his pocket knife, claiming she couldn't find it unless he visited her house, a thing he'd only do once dead, and his so called *sister* who had tried, repeatedly, to bother him into coming to school but had always gotten the cold shoulder in reply. Finally, however, the day was coming to a close. That day, the Hokage would come back and remove that damn chakra seal. Naruto was thus waiting patiently in the Hokage's office, with Dog-mask next to him, still reading that novel.

"Is it interesting, at least?" Naruto queried the Anbu.

"It has its points," Kakashi replied, the boy was actually starting to be liked by the Anbu: he was either direct or he was either silent, perfect Anbu material, and he was the first boy he had spoken to for more than five minutes without getting pissed off at something.

"You're nervous." Naruto replied, as if he was stating a matter of fact truth.

"How can you tell?" Kakashi was surprised: he would've thought that Anbu class training in covering one's own emotions would be more than sufficient.

"It's been two hours, and you're still on the same page." As Naruto remarked that, Kakashi chuckled, and turned the page.

"You got me." Then, Kakashi closed the book, "Seems the Hokage just got back." As a matter of fact, the door opened, and Minato barged him, closing it behind and activating the privacy seals.

"You!" he exclaimed, pointing at Naruto.

"I?" Naruto replied.

"Why didn't you tell me about Danzo's actions and training on you! Some stuff wasn't on the scrolls he gave me: we could've had more than enough proof to claim cruelty!" Minato snapped: he could've had the man on a silver platter already!

"You didn't ask, and I am not your friend." Naruto replied.

"Naruto-kun…he's the Hokage, you should respect him." Kakashi actually had been *granted permission* to use the boy's name, after narrating how the Hokage's secretary had taken in the news of the *expenses* in Anbu increasing, and that had sufficed to form, at the very least, a *live and let live* bond.

"What? It's true. He expects a kidnapped boy to respect him?" Naruto queried.

"Anyway, you could be witness in nailing Danzo's coffin! When I call the council and…"

"No." Naruto replied, shaking his head.

"What no? I'm ordering you…" Minato's words died in his mouth, as Naruto stared back at the Hokage harshly.

"Until the seal comes off, I ain't bargaining with you, Hokage-sama." The last word spat out in anger.

_Well, he did use the *Sama* _Kakashi thought.

"Fine, right now it's not like you'd have a place to return to." Minato replied, and, at those words, as he moved closer, Naruto muttered.

"What do you mean?"

As Minato grabbed the boy's right arm, to remove the seal, he made a small smile.

"Oh, you'd like to know, huh? Well, as it turns out, not even your father wished to start a war for you. So he decided to let you stay in Konoha, as a hostage, in exchange for an alliance between Kumo and Konoha, if you leave Konoha before five years, the time for the alliance to be cemented, you *will* be hunted by both Kumo and Konoha, and brought to justice. Seems like your *Otou-san* was simply using…you."

As the chakra seal came undone, Minato had barely the time to duck an electrically chakra enhanced fist.

**Kami be thanked, let's rip him to shreds!**

_KILL HIM._

"Not so fast." Just as Naruto was about to launch himself at the Hokage, the man made a single hand gesture, and all chakra dispersed from Naruto's body.

"Gah!" he rolled on the floor in pain, gasping for air.

"I removed the chakra blocking seal…but I swapped it with a chakra control one. You can use chakra, but, like the Caged Bird seal of the Hyuga, it takes but a specific hand sign, one that Kakashi-san here has seen and will be able to copy, to suppress it all…and I heard it's quite painful too." Kakashi stared wide-eyed at the scene, before coughing.

"Sensei…you told him my name."

"Oh, yeah, I didn't tell you? You're to train the boy privately when school is over and to make sure that he actually *attends* school…" Kakashi actually gulped, he was handing over an overly pissed with Konoha boy to him?

"That wasn't the deal we had!" Naruto yelled back.

"You said you'd be good…you just tried to attack me." Minato replied.

"But that was afterwards! And I never said I wouldn't try and kill you while going to school!" Naruto answered back snapping.

"Then I never said I wasn't going to swap one chakra seal for another. Kakashi-san, you can remove your mask, you'll need to be always alert on Naruto, even when he's at school, if he tries anything funny remove his chakra." With that, Minato turned to the Hokage's desk, which had a good chunk of documents on it.

"You're both dismissed." And with those final words, Kakashi exited the room last, as Naruto dashed off furiously first. Furious, because he couldn't cry out his tears, angered, because he couldn't prove the Hokage wrong, but more than that thrice damned, because now not only had he the Kyuubi roaring in his head his anger, but he also knew it wouldn't work no matter what. He was trapped. He was a dog on a leash in a prison.

He just wanted to go and cry, but he couldn't do that, the Hokage could have been lying for all he knew, he had to be sure of it, but how?

"Naruto," The voice snapped him back to his senses, as he had, without thought, walked towards the training ground, he turned around to look at Kakashi's face, for the first time in days, who, smiling at him, said.

"In two years, there are going to be the Chuunin exam for Konoha's Genins," as he pointed that out, he placed the book inside his flak jacket, "If Kumo and Konoha are allied, then Kumo will send its own ninjas to Konoha…if it does that…"

"The Raikage will also be present, and I'll be able to ask Otou-san what happened." Naruto replied, looking at Kakashi. Sure, he was with Konoha but…

"Kakashi-sensei," he whispered, "could you please teach me?"

"On two conditions only," Kakashi replied staring at the boy, "You will not seek vengeance against Konoha, Naruto-kun. I know you are angry, I know fate has been unkind to you, and I know you'd like to snap the Hokage's neck...but you shouldn't hate Konoha, only those who have harmed you should get your wrath, not the innocents. Okay?"

"…fine…what's the second one?" Naruto replied, as the anger left the place to a dull aching in his chest, he realized it wasn't worth it to hate everyone...after all it was Danzo's fault, not Konoha's, and not all the civilians had hit him with stones or participated in the mobs. Ayame-chan and Teuchi-san had been kind with him even after the news of him being the Jinchuuriki had spread, and once the hair-paint had gone off with alcohol, they had even recalled the first time they had met and had offered him the first bowl on the house.

"The second condition is that you will not in any way attempt to run away while on a mission, while doing so would endanger your teammates during your Genin period." As he pointed that out, Naruto's eyebrow raised a moment.

"So I can try and run if it doesn't endanger the team?"

"You can, but you heard the Hokage's words. Just try and avoid endangering your teammates in your hate, got it?" Naruto nodded, fine. His teammates would probably be nothing more than kids who wanted to play ninja.

"If I find out you have broken this promise, Naruto, I *will* find you out and I *will* have to kill you, understood?" Kakashi's tone grew serious, and Naruto, staring at the silver haired ninja with his own blue eyes, nodded back in understanding.

_I'll just have to make a list of culprits, and come back later on…_

**Author's notes**

**Next chapter: School days filler! (Probably)**

**This chapter actually came in a blast of inspiration on *how can I utterly destroy Naruto once more in the soul?* which means that yes, my Muse has been shot down repeatedly, and I had to require tissue napkins for half the writing I had to do…I hope this chapter explains how *some* things went. For the summit between Minato and the Raikage…*I love to leave people waiting* and you'll see in a flashback...eventually. By the way, Lee, Tenten and Neji are one year older than the others, thus they are newly appointed Genins. **

**As to *How he go from Kumo-nin to Konoha-nin*, he finished Kumo academy one year earlier, which brought the misunderstanding that Kumo trained him as a weapon (a feat Danzo wanted to do) which sparked the Hokage's intention of having Naruto enjoy a *normal* academy life. It's simply not a matter of allegiance, but of intimidation and, well, *the headband you're wearing marks who you belong to* stuff…that coupled with the fact that Head-on war would be a slaughter for both sides…forced alliances ftw, and more Naruto soul-rending!**

**(Please, someone kill my muse)**


	6. Settling

Sixth chapter

Nervousness wielded down his soul. He had felt that very same feeling once, years before, and right now, once more, he felt that nervousness, only this time it was drowned with anger.

*Flashback*

"Yugito-san what's school?" Naruto's eyes had queried, with a perplexed look, at the blond woman, who had helped him *settle* in.

"The ninja academy in Kumo is the only school available, Naruto-kun. You heard the Rai…your Otou-san, right?" Yugito actually held Naruto's right hand tightly, she was nervous too. It would be the first day of school also for her…as a teacher.

"Yes, but what's school?" Naruto had queried again, Yugito-san hadn't answered the first time around.

"Well…school is…a place where you learn stuff." The Nibi Jinchuuriki had replied.

"What stuff?" Naruto had queried once more, surprised, was it like the Root training?

"Well…history, basic math, things like that. Also…ninja stuff, but I think you've got that covered already." As Yugito said that, Naruto nodded, but he still couldn't help but feel uneasy at the front gate of the school of Kumo.

"Yugito-san…do I have to kill one of my classmates to advance?" as Naruto queried that, Yugito gave him an utterly shocked look.

"N-No, Naruto-kun, you don't have to, you must *not* do it, got it?" to her relief, the boy had nodded with a smile.

"I like school already." He had replied, but somewhere, his smile had turned into a saddened one. Yugito had kneeled in front of the boy, and had looked him straight into the eyes.

"Naruto-kun, school is a place where you learn, and where you have fun with your classmates and friends, got it? No killing. No blood. No muscle-rending training. Got it?" Naruto had nodded.

"I'm nervous too, you know. It's my first day as a sensei too…and we're already five minutes late." As Yugito got back up with a sigh, she heard a meek reply.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Naruto-kun. It's Darui-san and his idea of pushing the clock's alarm forward to sleep some more." Yugito had replied, ruffling the boy's hair.

"Now come on, I'll bring you to your class." With that, Yugito had brought the boy into the building, and into his class, filled with faces of kids who stared back at his, he hadn't ran away, especially because it turned out that Yugito-san was going to be his sensei...that had convinced him to stay there.

*end of flashback*

The front gate of the ninja academy of Konoha stood there, with its nice and leafy symbol, and a slightly boiling with rage Naruto.

"I don't get it." He muttered.

"Naruto-kun, we went through this already…" Kakashi had brought the boy there first thing in the morning, as he was pretty sure that left alone he would have devised a plan to ditch school.

"He bent my words, why can't I bend his?" Naruto had replied with a slight whine.

"Because *Going to school* is a bit difficult to bend." Kakashi had chuckled.

"I could stay in the school's ground, but not go to class." Naruto pointed that out, earning himself a sigh from the copy-cat ninja.

"But a class has a chair and a desk to sit on."

"The school ground has trees, and grass, and branches." Naruto replied, pointing at various trees, patches of grass, and branches on said trees.

"Naruto…Iruka-sensei is a good ninja, he'll treat you well." Kakashi replied.

"I'm not nervous about entering a class of frothing idiots, Kakashi-sensei, I'm nervous I'm going to slash their necks if they try something funny," Naruto replied with a slight groan, "at least Lee-kun can stand its ground when I steam off…oh no. I know why I can't go to school today!" Naruto exclaimed with a smile, staring at his sensei.

"And what would be that reason, Naruto-kun?" Kakashi replied, looking curiously at the boy.

"I didn't warn Gai-sensei!"

"I'll warn him then." Kakashi replied.

"Promise you will do that in time?" Naruto retorted, and Kakashi, sighing, nodded.

"Fine then…but you keep your end of the bargain." Raising his index to point it at Kakashi, and moving it up and down in the known motion of *I'm keeping an eye on you*, Naruto entered the building, alone.

He groaned, as there was no-one in sight, and he realized, much to his dismay, that he had no clue which class was taught by *Iruka-sensei*.

As he began walking along a hallway, he heard a familiar voice whispering at him.

"Naruto-kun!" he turned around, just in time to see Kushina, with a pile of papers, coming towards him…so she worked at the academy? Great, now he had to ask her.

"…good morning, Uzumaki-sama," Naruto replied, coldly, as he looked at the woman stopping and sighing, before shaking her red-haired head.

"I told you: it's Kushina-chan, and it is Kushina-sensei in school…Are you lost?" Naruto nodded, in silence.

"Who's your teacher?"

"Iruka-sensei," Naruto replied, slowly.

"Well…he's on the second floor, third class to the left. 2-3 is the number on the wooden plate outside," normally, Kushina wouldn't have known, but Iruka-san was the teacher of Katsumi and soon of Naruto…so…"would you like me to accompany you, 'ttebayo?"

"No, I can manage just fine, Uzumaki-sama," with that, he turned around, and started walking at a slightly increased pace. No need to be too late on the first day of school. Had he turned around, he'd have seen Kushina bite her lower lip, trying to understand why she had suddenly received the cold shoulder from Naruto, but then she shook her head, she wasn't meant to cry there, she had work to do, she promised herself though: she'd buy him some new clothes soon.

Naruto stopped in front of the wooden door, which would have given inside the class he was meant to sit in. A set of thoughts rolled in through his mind: he could either smash the door open with a full-out kick, enter yelling his hate and distaste for Konoha and the world, get reprimanded, and forced to meet *him* again, and maybe get some torture session with the damn seal on his right arm...or he could act the polite boy, and hit hard anyone who did something to piss him off.

_School is a place where you have fun with your classmates and your friends._ Naruto sighed, he had to be good in school, *fun* might be too far-fetched, but at the very least he could take it as a chance to show off how weak Konoha Genins were in regards to Kumo. He knocked on the wooden door, hearing a male voice calling.

"Come on in." Once more, like in the past, he opened the door, entering with utter silence. The class simply stood silent.

Even the sensei, Iruka, at first sight said nothing.

"You…are?"

"Naruto, meant to start *learning* here since five days ago." Naruto replied, trying to keep a calm face.

"Oh yes, Uzum…" but Iruka couldn't finish the sentence, there was a really, really bad stare directed at him from the boy.

"Naruto," Was all that the boy muttered, gritting his teeth, "I'd prefer to be called by my name."

"I…see, well then, Naruto-kun, would you present yourself to the class?" as Iruka asked that, Naruto, turning to the class, slightly grinned: he was going to enjoy this.

"YOSH! Let the flame of youth shine brightly on you all!" with that, he made his most adept imitation of Lee's smile, and, considering he was dressed with the only clothes he actually possessed, since it turned out nobody wanted him in their shops, consisting of the green spandex full boy suit, the bright orange warmers, and the hidden set of weights.

With that, the reason for the class' silence became clear…the murmurs about *the green beast of Konoha* being able to produce spawn would be unleashed like a fiery hurricane of fire and destruction on a pine forest on a bright summer day.

Till then, Iruka-sensei smiled, a small anime sweat-drop falling down his forehead, before coughing.

"Well, yeah. Good to see you're so enthusiastic…please take any free seat you find." As Iruka pointed out the class, which actually had several empty seats, Naruto moved towards the far back, even though it seemed a certain orange dressed girl was waving at him and insisting he'd take the seat right next to her. He wasn't in the mood, however, and passed by without even looking at her, ending in the far back next to a strange guy with shades and a closed up trench coat, that emitted a low humming sound, continuously.

"Good…well, we can start the lesson. For those who have started later than most," with that, Iruka had probably hoped to make Naruto feel at ease, even though he had started months after the normal start of the course, "do not worry, with hard practice you'll be able to tackle everything that this year has to offer…if you start studying the day before the exams, however, I can't guarantee you'll make it."

Iruka then began explaining in the earnest history, doing his best to make the lesson interesting, not for the Nara boy, who Iruka knew that it wouldn't matter anyway, but for Naruto Uzumaki, as the Hokage himself had requested his *aid* in making sure the boy would surround himself with friends.

"So, that is how the fourth Hokage spared the Kumogakure ninjas on the other side of…"

"That's wrong." All faces turned to stare at the boy who had spoken, who, obviously, was Naruto.

"Naruto-kun?" Iruka queried perplexed, kind of wondering if he had misspoken a word of the book.

"The fourth Hokage didn't spare the ninjas of Kumogakure, during the battle for the bridge of Tensho, it was the other way around: the Kumo ninja held the damn bridge for five days and five nights, *Konoha's yellow flash* didn't take even a single step on Kumo's soil, and even though the toll of casualties was heavy, of five-hundred-thirty-seven Chuunin level ninjas, and thirty-four Jounin level ones, the fourth Hokage had to dash away when the Raikage arrived with reinforcements…like the coward he is."

Someone in his office sneezed hard.

"Naruto-kun! You shouldn't offend the Hokage, and what proof would you have about being right?" as Iruka snapped at the insolence of the boy, Naruto stared at the professor like he was seeing an idiot.

"They didn't tell you?" he queried, perplexed.

"Tell me what?"

"I came here from Kumo. I did the academy there." At that, Iruka coughed, no, nobody had told him that, but still, he could have been wrong never the less, it could have been propaganda on the enemy side! But if he had used that card, then he would have been countered with the same token.

"Anyway, you should respect the Hokage! He is the strongest out of the village and everyone owes him his life, for his help in defeating the nine-tailed beast!" as Iruka said that, murmurs of approval dashed through the class.

"So there's no longer the Kyuubi around, right?" Naruto replied, just to be sure.

"Yes, that damn monster is dead and in the graveyard." Iruka replied, with certainty in his voice, obviously he knew he was wrong, he knew, like the others, that Naruto was actually the Jinchuuriki from the nine tails, who had been kidnapped by unknown forces and then brought back later on...it just meant Naruto had been in Kumo before being brought back.

"Pathetic," was all that Naruto muttered, as the class actually froze.

"Did you just say pathetic? Why would that be, mister smart guy?" Iruka gritted his teeth: no, he was a student, maybe acting like a know-it-all, maybe hoping to make friends in that way; he should try and talk with him later on.

"Bijuu, the demon forms of the tailed beasts, cannot die," Naruto replied, shrugging, "anyone in Kumo knows that, since the eight tailed beast rampaged through the village countless time, before being finally sealed into the Jinchuuriki, the containers for the tailed beasts' power." Iruka paled slightly, but then shook his head. No, the boy was messing with him to try and make friends, yeah, it had to be that, there was no way he'd actually want the classmates to know he was the Jinchuuriki of Konoha, of the Nine-tailed beasts, why would he want them to know?

"I don't know if it is Kumo's way to prove teachers wrong, but in Konoha, teacher explains and students learn while staying quiet, making questions if they don't understand something, but not outright refuting knowledge: I expect you to write a full report on the history of Konoha and submit it by tomorrow, of at least five page, coupled with a letter of apology for the Hokage, or I will make sure your grades won't go above the two...on a one hundred basis," as Iruka stared at the boy, hoping to see fear, or at least understanding that the boy was in the wrong, all he got back was a hardened glare, it wasn't the glare of an angry student not at all: it was the glare of a murderer out for blood. Without even realizing it, Iruka's hand had already gone for the kunai pouch, but as he stopped, and stared back at the boy, Naruto chuckled.

"My, afraid of a student? Tsk-Tsk. Academy in Konoha must be made up by pathetic excuses of teachers then. Thank Kami I already finished the academy in Kumo: at least I learned things there!" With that, Iruka gritted his teeth: no, the boy didn't want to make friends, all he wanted to make a fool out of the entire school system of Konoha…but he wouldn't let him.

"I see Naruto-kun, then I'll be sure to double up the pace at which we do homework…I'm sure your classmates wouldn't want to lose ground to any Kumo academy student." A set of groan and glares of hate dashed through the academy, the groans aimed into the air, but the stares, all at a single boy dressed in a green spandex suit, but Naruto simply smiled.

_Played right into my hand._

**You sure we're not related?**

_Why are you here? _

**Oh, come on Monster-kun! Let me in on the fun!**

_Yeah, so a hand-symbol later we both eat the dirt._

**Kushina-chan is the one who taught Fuinjutsu and sealing techniques to Minato…she could help you.**

_I'd rather eat charring coals. _

**Now that's an interesting approach. **

Naruto kept quiet for the rest of the lesson, strangely, the boy with shades didn't even say a single word about his *exploits*, and, when the lunch break bell finally rang, everyone dashed outside for the recreational lunch with their bentos. Everyone, except Naruto, who was staring at the wooden desk he was sitting on, his eyes fixed on the lines of the wood, darting through it and trying to imagining a story about a Hokage getting impaled by spiky points.

"You're no fun." The voice interrupted him from his dreams, as, looking to the side, he realized that Katsumi had spoken to him with a small pout on her face, a raven haired boy behind her.

Katsumi was wearing an orange one piece dress, but that also had orange shorts, more apt probably for a date than for ninja academy, while the boy was wearing white shorts and a blue long-necked jacket, with the symbol of what looked like a…a ping-pong racket, in Naruto's eyes.

Naruto didn't reply, but raised his right eyebrow, in a sort of *what do you want?*

"You shouldn't act like that if you want to make friends!" she exclaimed once more, raising her right hand, index forward, in a *teacher-like* attitude.

"You should be considerate of others, you should take into account their opinion, you should help others, you should…"

"Katsumi-chan." The raven haired boy spoke.

"What? I'm telling Naruto-kun here how to make friends! You don't know how, right?" as Katsumi turned back to where Naruto was supposed to be, she realized he had already left.

"Sasuke-kun! Why didn't you tell me he had left!" As Katsumi screeched that to the raven-haired boy, Sasuke shrugged, it wasn't his business, and he too, sometimes, would have wanted to simply ditch the ultra-energetic girl and get some peace somewhere, but he couldn't as his late mother and Kushina-sama had been friends, and it had been the last will of his mother to be friends with Kushina's own children...while that man's will had been to find him and kill him…a feat he, as an avenger, had yet to do.

Naruto had grabbed the first moment of distraction of the girl to swiftly run for safety, and to avoid corpses in the classroom. He had moved out of the window and had then proceeded to use chakra to climb the school's wall, a feat no other student seemed able to do, as the roof, off-limits to everyone, was empty and deserted by the time he arrived there. He was seething with rage. The man! The nerve!

Why did he have to be treated like a kid? Why!

He started hitting the empty air, realizing, much to his dismay, how a real opponent would have felt better. Something to hit and harm, something to feel crushed, something to know it will go crying or limping in a corner, he just wanted that, blood.

He shook his head, bringing his hands through his spiky blond hair, getting on his knees, no. That wasn't good. He didn't want blood.

Yugito-oneechan had told him he didn't need blood, he didn't have to be a monster, he could be better than them without being a monster. He was pissed at the Hokage, he was pissed at that man, but he wasn't a monster, no. He wasn't evil, they were! He was good. He was doing good! He just had to be a ninja, and keep it up, yes, he just had to be a ninja. A good ninja.

"I miss you, onee-chan." He whispered, as his fists began trembling, "Why? Why did I have to come here? Why aren't you coming to take me back? What did I do wrong? It's my fault, isn't it? It's my fault: all of this is my fault. If only I wasn't born, right? What. Did. I. Do. Wrong." With every last word of the sentence, he punched the hard concrete surface of the school's roof, until blood started to come out from his knuckles, at which point he simply stood, sitting, his stomach growling as he obviously didn't have a bento, nobody made him one and he didn't need one, no, he was a Genin from Kumo, shinigami be damned he didn't need a bento!

His stomach growled a bit more, but he shook his head.

_Ignore it, you can go without, remember the training._

_The training, what training?_

_The one you did, come on, remember it. _

_No._

_Yes. Remember it. Come on Monster, come in. _

_No, my name is Naruto._

_You're monster, a monster that walks the darkness, which needs no name. You're a Monster, a demon, you're trash and you'll always be trash._

_No, I am not trash: I am not a monster or a demon! I am not Worthless!_

_But you are not a perfect Weapon. You are not worthy of being Naruto. You are not even worthy of being human! You are lying to everyone, and you know it. _

While Naruto was trying his hardest not to let the voice in his head be right, someone else had heard him talk to himself on the roof, that someone being Iruka, who hadn't been a Chuunin-sensei for nothing, and had been the one to realize that Naruto hadn't simply left the room by the door, but by the window, following him and hearing his conversation to himself.

_But if he has a sister…why is he here? I should ask Kushina-san...they told me he had been kidnapped by Kumo at a young age then again, maybe they used brainwashing on him… _With that thought in mind, Iruka waited patiently, until his slight suspect became the truth: the boy wasn't lying when he said he knew things from the Kumo academy, as he simply walked back into the class by walking on the wall, instead of jumping inside, as the teacher had previously thought. That required quite a bit of chakra control.

Iruka shook his head, what an idiot he had been! The boy was obviously challenging him, and Konoha's supremacy, simply because he had been brainwashed by Kumo and knew only of Kumo…that was the reason! He shouldn't have spoken harshly to him at all! He just hoped he'd make it in time to amend for the second part of the lesson.

As Naruto sat down again, he realized this time that, except for *buzzing* noise boy, nobody else was sitting near him, and he supposed that the boy simply didn't care at all.

He gulped down, nervously, well…here it went.

"Hello," he whispered to the boy, who, actually surprised, turned his gaze on the boy, slightly nodding in understanding that he was being asked something.

"My…name is Naruto."

_That's not your name! IT's not your true name! YOU ARE MONSTER!_

_Shut up!_

The boy with shades nodded again, well, at least he didn't seem to be the brash-talkative type.

"Why are you still there? Are you not pissed at me?" he queried, perplexed.

"My bugs enjoy the warmth of the sun rays," he replied, as Naruto nodded, sure, the bugs.

Wait, the bugs?

"And I don't care...homework is trifle."

Oh, well, Naruto shrugged, he'd probably write the words *Hokage is idiot* with the grammatical mistake, on the entirety of the letter sent to the damn Hokage, he'd probably manage to fool the teacher with a heart rending story on how he had no paper nor pens at home and avoid doing the relation and the rest.

The point was that he actually had no pens nor paper at home, nor the school books, nor anything else. Actually, with the food trashed because of his haters, the things destroyed and the rest, his apartment was empty of everything but a mattress and he really didn't want to go there...he didn't even trust to sleep in there without a weapon of sorts in his hand, a weapon he didn't even possess!

He was unarmed, unequipped, and without supplies in enemy territory. The only reason he wasn't, as of yet, famished, was because he had learned to keep important stuff, like money, in his pocket, and because Ichiraku's ramen, the most economic one, didn't cost much. He had no other spare set of clothes, he had no-one to turn to, because he'd be damned if he ever set a single foot into the Namikaze mansion ever, and he would rather spit in the Hokage's face than ask him for his allowance again by next month.

He needed an income, and obviously he couldn't take missions, nor even go out of the village. Nobody would hire him, so he had to prioritize…and actually scavenge.

As he mentally prepared his plan for survival in the unknown and harsh land of Konoha, a couple of seats below, a red-haired twin-tailed girl was thinking about how to help Naruto out of his shell, her mother had pleaded her to be friends with him, and to have him open up, because he had had a harsh life before, and he would face many tough things. She had nodded, saying to believe in her.

Now, however, she had to manage that, all the while helping Sasuke to avoid his fan-girls, especially those two idiots of a Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka. The fact that Naruto had suddenly doubled the homework load on the class was bad, but what was worse was that he was gravitating towards the bad elements of the class. Shino Aburame was crawling with insects since kindergarten! She had to save her cousin from him, or he'd risk ending up together with the Nara, who was a sleeping bum, and the school's sewer system: Chouji.

Meanwhile, the teacher was debating how to break the news to the class that no, nobody was going to do double-amount of homework and that Naruto didn't have to do all that extra work. Until Kiba Inuzuka took word, that is.

"Sensei! It's the Taijutsu spar time!" as the boy yelled that, Iruka gasped, he hadn't recalled it was that time already, but even then, that might turn on his favor: he'd have them fight, say they did well, and remove all extra homework from them. Perfect.

"Good thinking Kiba-kun, let's go to the school's training ground." As everyone slowly went, Naruto stood last, next to the bug-boy.

"Can I know your name?" Naruto whispered meekly, like he was actually embarrassed and sorry to ask it. Shino stared at the blond spike haired boy who had a sad and *please forgive me* gaze, he just looked like a cute ladybug.

"My name is Shino." As Naruto smiled at that, getting to Shino's side, he happily said.

"You can call me Naruto-kun, and I'll call you Shino-kun, okay?" There was something inherently wrong with the boy's way of expressing emotions, or feelings, but Shino shook it off, no, the boy had reached to him, and he'd reach to the boy, at least as the two most hated class members of the school the number of insults or pranks would be cut by a half, so Shino nodded at Naruto's question.

"You remind me of Darui-san. He was really quiet, used to say *cool* a lot, and keep always a calm demeanor…"

*Kumo*

"What do you mean, there's no reply! It's been five days!" Yugito was furious. It was the ninth letter she wrote to Naruto, and she had not received a single reply back, this was a capital offense! She was already thinking bad things, now, thoughts of a hand-chopped Naruto had started filling her dreams, of him crawling in the dirt with signs reading *anger deposit* or *useless item*. She had decided to write him once a day, even trifle things, so Naruto would know they all thought about him day after day…yet he hadn't replied.

"I am sorry, but as an international postal ninja it's my duty to deliver it to the Konoha's postal system, and then it's up to them." The ninja raised his arms to protect his face from the woman, who was just barely containing her anger in and seemed prone to snap at any moment.

"But they told us we could write to him!" Yugito snapped.

"Then maybe he simply isn't answering back?" The postal ninja queried, but touched the wrong button, as Yugito nearly cleaved his face in two pieces, being stopped only by both Darui and C, holding her back.

"He would never do that! Never!" Yugito screeched, as the postal ninja jumped backward, relieved he hadn't become…cat food.

"He'd never do that, got it?" Yugito whispered, as both Darui and C exchanged glances, nodding.

"Yugito-san...maybe we should tell you." C started, as Yugito's watery eyes looked at one of her friends.

"But not here. Better at home, with warm milk," Darui replied, "and a soft cushion, yeah, definitively the soft cushion."

"I'm not a baby cat!" Yugito muttered, turning around, "But move it! I want to know!" with that, the three ninjas left the postal one to go along his business, as they reached the building, the one that usually had also a happy singing Naruto on the Karaoke, with B doing the duo…and that now had only Killer B slouching on the couch munching chips, watching a gifted film of princess Yukie.

"B, we're going to tell Yugito what happened at the meeting…are you fine with it?" as they asked B, he actually tensed, then sighed.

"Give her milk and a soft cushion…" he whispered, going back to the film.

"I'm starting to think I really need the milk and the soft cushion now." Yugito whispered, as she sat down on the table.

"Well…it went like this." Darui began explaining.

*Flashback*

"WHERE THE FUCKING FRIGGING HELL IS MY SON!" Mifune had actually decided to call in more than the normal amount of guards for this particular meeting, to be precise, there were at least fifty samurais ready to intervene if things went the wrong way…something that was bound to happen anyway. All of them had been given a concoction that made them deaf for a temporary amount of time, so they wouldn't hear anything said, but would intervene if Mifune raised his right hand. While Minato had Jiraiya on his side, acting as a bodyguard, the Raikage had Darui, C and Killer B, debating that a legendary Sannin was worth at least three bodyguards.

The Raikage's yell went through a slightly sweating Minato, who replied with as much calm as possible.

"Listen, Raikage, you have no rights on the boy: he belonged to Konoha since the moment he was born, the third sacrificed himself to make him the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, which belongs to Konoha since the ancient treaties made by the first Hokage himself!"

"Don't you dare speak of him like a tool: he belongs to no-one but who he chooses and he's chosen KUMO!"

"Brainwashing him will get you nowhere!" Minato spoke, "fooling with him and making him believe you actually cared about him? That's foolish. He realized it too."

"What are you saying boy…" sparkles of electricity flew in the air, making Mifune speak slowly.

"Calm down, A-sama, do not force me to have the samurai act."

"Fine…he isn't worth it...Explain your words before I call for war actions." A muttered, while kicking a piece of what once was a desk: he had already smashed the fourth desk in a row, and Mifune had simply decided to stop replacing them.

"The Yamanaka clan and the Konoha's head of the Interrogation department have spoken to him, and they have both agreed, without entering his head as that would certainly be a breach of *our alliance*, that he had been subjected to brainwash, sometime in his past."

"Obviously! It's your Root training of hell!" A cursed himself for having been conned into discussing his son under the precept of him being necessary in the *alliance* between Kumo and Konoha. He was just a point in a set of letters, and words, he was just a bargaining chip.

"Root training does not include brainwashing," Minato was puzzled for a moment as none of Danzo's scrolls spoke of brainwashing: just slightly over the top propaganda and training regimes worthy of Anbu material.

The Raikage noticed the perplexed expression on the Hokage's face, and narrowed his eyes.

"So you don't even know what he had to go through, and you call yourself his Hokage? Go and query your so called *Danzo* of what he did to him, why don't you directly ask Naruto, if, as you say, he *realized* how WE brainwashed him?"

"He has accepted to stay in the village for the moment, you know?" Minato said, with a smug look on his face that made A wish he could simply attack him right there with a straight right punch.

"Now I'm also going to tell you why he was taken back, apart from belonging to Konoha from the very beginning, it's also because of another S-secret, one that made him prone on staying in Konoha for said amount of time, and even follow around my wife without problems…do you want to know it? It's one of the most guarded secrets in Konoha…you'll have to swear secrecy on the matter, as will all the others."

"If you do swear, know that the land of iron *will* ensure it is kept secret." Mifune spoke, sternly.

"Boy, you sure?" Jiraiya muttered, looking at Minato.

"Yes sensei, they're going to accept it, or they'll admit the truth of them being Hypocrites," with those words, A was just about to conjure a Raiton, but stopped, biting his tongue until blood came out.

"Fine, speak your Kami be damned secret."

*Flashback end*

"So, why did I need milk and a soft cushion? It doesn't seem that bad… Except the secret that you can't speak about," as Yugito spoke, Darui and C nodded to each other.

"The Uzumaki clan can conjure chains of chakra, Yugito-chan." Darui spoke slowly.

"So what?"

"Kushina Uzumaki is the wife of the Fourth Hokage." C pointed out.

"And that bitch means what in the equation?" Yugito muttered with a slight growl.

"Naruto could possibly be able to conjure chains of chakra and was born the tenth of October." Darui said, whistling.

"The tenth of October a certain Kushina gave birth to a daughter." C replied, gritting his teeth.

"So…how does that connect to everything else?" as Yugito said that, words died in her mouth.

Naruto is an Uzumaki born the tenth of October.

The bitch was with them on the bridge.

The bitch had yelled something on the bridge.

"_They have Naruto!" _The bitch knew Naruto's name, she didn't yell Jinchuuriki, or monster, she used his name, with a pleading tone…oh no.

"She…They…He…" She held the soft cushion tightly, staring at warm milk: maybe she'd need chocolate biscuits with it, thousands of chocolate biscuits with it.

"You understand now why the Raikage had no choice? The Fourth came up with that simple solution…but it could pretty much mean that Naruto has simply accepted his…family, and has renounced us…that's why he isn't answering your letters…and that saddens us all." As C softly spoke, Yugito started sobbing, before shaking her head.

"No. He's simply not receiving them. Or he can't reply back because those bastards are preventing him from. In two years, chuunin exam, I'll be there and I'll have the truth out of Naruto, and no-one else. Fourth Hokage or not, family or not, he is MY brother, and I'll grab him back!"

"I'm with the Nibi on this!" Killed B said, raising his right fist in the air.

"I just hope you're right…it would hurt too much if it weren't the case…" Darui muttered, as he looked into the hallway, at the closed door that would bring one into Naruto's room. He just hoped he'd pop out of that door, was he thinking about him too?

*Konoha*

Naruto stared at his Taijutsu opponent, Kiba Inuzuka.

"Let me show you how real Taijutsu is!" As Kiba launched forward, hands ready to clash, the white puppy held thanks to his jacket, under his face, Naruto raised an eyebrow.

Then he gave him a left hook to the side of the face, sending the dog-boy to hit the ground and growl, as he got back up.

"Kiba-kun, that's enough you know…" as Iruka spoke that, Kiba snapped back angry.

"No! I don't like his face, of *superiority*, I'm already sick of the Uchiha one, another one is too much!" with that, Kiba charged forward once more, but at the last moment, he placed his hands on the ground, readying himself for a full-out double kick…only to fall to the ground in pain the next moment.

Naruto had simply given him a nice kick in between his legs at the right moment, and then he had stared at the sight of the boys viewing the match flinching, some of them outright holding their anatomical parts in imitation of despair, and the teacher even averting his eyes for a moment, before saying.

"This is a friendly Taijutsu spar, Naruto-kun, please…refrain from hitting certain spots." As Iruka said that, Naruto chuckled shaking his head.

"Something funny? Would you like to share it with the rest of the class?" as Iruka queried that, Naruto shrugged his shoulders.

"When you meet an enemy, kindly remind them not to hit *certain* spots. I'm sure they'll accept over tea."

Sasuke actually smirked at that, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Katsumi...

"Naruto-kun, Kiba-kun is not your enemy…he's a classmate, a friend." As Kiba slowly got on his knees, panting, he turned to stare at Naruto, then at Iruka, before shaking his head.

"That's why he's still breathing, sensei. If he was an enemy, he'd already be dead." As Naruto pointed that out, he also pointed at some tree branches, far off the court.

"That guy over there in hiding, for example, knows pretty well that I could kill him effortlessly without weapons, that's why he's been staring at me for a good chunk of practice time…to make sure I don't." as Naruto finished speaking, a silver haired Jounin actually appeared next to the boy, eying him pretty badly.

"You really had to blow my cover up?" he muttered, as he folded away Icha-Icha paradise.

"Hide your chakra next time…or stay further away…I had a sensor ninja as a Jounin-sensei…but more than that, an orange cover book in a bright green foliage? Do you take me for an idiot?" Naruto replied with a smile.

"Ehm…is he your guardian, Naruto-kun?" as Iruka queried that, trying not to make it apparent that he wasn't paying attention, and hadn't thus seen the ninja, Katsumi smiled, waving at the Jounin.

"Kakashi-san! You're Naruto's guardian? He's the copy-cat ninja, one of my father's ex-students when Otou-san had a team!" as the girl said that, there were chorus of *ohs* and *ahs* echoing thorough the training grounds.

"That explains why he's so skilled." A tick mark appeared on Naruto's forehead, as blue steeled eyes met the ones of Kakashi, the Jounin sighed.

"No." He said, as the murmur died down.

"This guy here was good even before I started training him. I will not take merit for something someone else did, someone who was really good, too, if I must say my opinion." As he said that, and turned down to stare at Naruto's eyes, he stopped for a moment. They were sparkling: sparkling in joy, real joy, not fake one, not one to hide pain or anything else, real heart-warming joy. He actually gasped for a moment, before regaining his senses.

"Well…lessons are over, since everyone did good there won't be double amount of homework, and since Naruto did particularly well…" as Iruka said that, someone else spoke.

"Speak for yourself…" Kiba muttered clenching his teeth as he moved out of the ring.

"He won't have to do the extra homework as punishment…you're all dismissed." With that, everyone ran off, back to their homes, except Iruka, Kakashi, and an eye sparkling Naruto.

"Please…not while you're in a green spandex suit," Kakashi pleaded, it was like staring at his self-proclaimed rival Gai, only worst, because this one was staring directly at him.

Naruto grinned, and then he brought his right fist forward, straight in front of the copy-cat ninja.

"Bros!"

_Try and make him open up? Just what did I do to earn such a result? _As Kakashi thought that, he chuckled, well, no problem trying…and he bro-fisted back the boy, who smiled even wider.

"We're bros now Kakashi-sensei! You need a hand, call me! Do we go training now?" as Naruto asked that, Iruka couldn't help but wonder why the boy thought he could actually help a *Jounin* of Anbu class like Hatake Kakashi, but then again, he hadn't been scratched once in all the Taijutsu's spars. Many students would have gone home with broken bones, had Naruto actually finished his moves, he was holding back, that much made Iruka think the boy deserved, at least, a second chance…He still had to talk with the Hokage's wife though.

"Yes, I realized lately that you don't have much of equipment, do you?" as Kakashi started walking towards the exit, he stopped, as Katsumi and Sasuke stood in his way, and that of Naruto who was just about to reply something.

"Kakashi-san, can we come too?" as Katsumi queried that, hoping she could reach Naruto's *bro-ship* through Kakashi, her eyes turned sorrowful when Kakashi shook his head.

"Nope, it's…" Kakashi shivered slightly, but he had to make him open up, right? He had to, so he had to play the role, "bro-time only". He actually turned his only visible eye to Naruto, who was…actually sparkling some more.

_Kami just what have I ended up in…_

"Maybe next time, now off you two go." As Kakashi kept walking Naruto followed, a wide grin on his face as he followed the copy-cat ninja, while behind them, the two academy student stared, one with a sad face and the other with an annoyed one.

"I'm the last of the Uchiha, I should have a Jounin-sensei teaching me, not that…new-comer," Sasuke muttered, as Katsumi's gaze turned sadder.

"This isn't the end," Katsumi muttered, "I'll crack his shell open, dattebayo!" as she yelled the final part, the raven-haired boy sighed, there she went again.

"Let's follow them!" the red-haired girl said, grabbing Sasuke's hand and starting to pull him with her, in a dash to keep their sights on the two.

"Where do you think you're going holding hands with Sasuke-kun?" at that moment, a wall of angry fan-girls stopped the two, with at the head both Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno.

"We're in a hurry, dattebayo! Let us go!" but as a lot of hands grabbed onto Sasuke, yanking him off Katsumi, the Uchiha actually had to start running for his life, his clothing being nearly shredded by the fan-girls.

"YIPES!" with that, Sasuke dashed off, leaving Katsumi alone, as the fan-girls went after their loved one, and worst of all, without knowing where the two, the Jounin and Naruto, had ended up going.

Meanwhile, Naruto looked around for a brief moment, before saying:

"I don't need ninja equipment, Kakashi-san…I don't have the money to buy it too," He muttered that staring at the dirt road, his right hand behind his neck as the copy-cat ninja sighed.

"I suspect that much, your stomach has been grumbling for quite a while. Already finished the monthly allowance?" as Kakashi queried that, Naruto shook his head.

"No, but when I enter a shop, the prices suddenly triple, that is if they don't throw me out to begin with...and I don't want to be in debt with that man." At the words, Kakashi nodded.

"So, what are you going to do? You're a ninja, you need equipment." The silver haired Jounin was thinking that maybe he did have some worn out stuff he could pass on the boy, not as charity, obviously, but maybe if he did well in training…

"Well…I know in Kumo one could bring eagle eggs and the like to the postal office, they'd buy them and incubate them: since they would then train them as eagle messengers…I don't know about Konoha though…" Naruto muttered.

"I don't think there are that many eagles in Konoha though nor I suspect they'd buy the eggs from you. I know of someone who likes to have venoms and shouldn't have a problem buying them from you…a bit of an outcast herself, but the only place with poisonous animals is the training ground of the Forest of Death, and that's a Chuunin-class and Jounin-class training ground…outside of Konoha's gate." As Kakashi pointed that out, Naruto's expression turned thoughtful.

"Kakashi-sensei…can you get me permission to train there?" Kakashi's eye widened, before narrowing down.

"You'd rather try and earn your money by fighting the forest of death, rather than going to the Hokage's office?" as the Jounin whispered that, Naruto nodded back.

"Otou-san used to tell me that I was a good boy for trying my hardest without getting too much help."

With those words, Kakashi shrugged, you can't force someone to do something they hate, and he'd be there too, so nothing bad would happen.

"Fine then, since we're he…" he stopped as he saw Naruto dash for some bushes in the training ground, and then coming out, minutes later, with what looked like a left behind Kunai.

"Look what I found sensei!" It was a bit battered, and the point was dull, but the boy seemed to enjoy it, as he began making it twirl around, and eying it pretty fondly.

"One's man trash is another man's treasure…huh?" with a sigh, Kakashi closed the book, and grabbed one of his own kunai.

"If you can manage five minutes without getting that Kunai taken from you, I'll help you out in going to the Forest of Death, got it?" with those words, Naruto nodded, getting into position, Kakashi prepared the alarm clock, and then got in position too.

Kakashi actually smiled, as he moved to show off his sharingan, and grinned even more when, as Naruto saw his movement, the boy's stare suddenly turned to his feet.

_He's not stupid at…_

Naruto dashed forward, his arm making a wide sweeping motion where moments before Kakashi would have been.

Slight air movements made him realize the boy had been increasing his speed thanks to a Futon Jutsu, the great breakthrough probably, but not in a powerful version. He remembered that the boy was hungry, and sighed, he was probably not eating since the morning, and he kind of doubted even that, as he *knew* his apartment was devoid of food.

"You know we could grab a…" but he ducked to the side, as Naruto didn't seem to be listening to him, as he completed a crescent-moon kick and then continued the move with his left hand, that was covered in sparkling electricity.

_I see he's definitively the close combat type…still he's not used to not seeing the enemy's face._

With that, Kakashi swiftly used his right hand to punch Naruto's left arm, while getting down and staring with a grin at Naruto's face, his sharing viewing…Naruto's closed eyes.

_Wh…?_

The next moment, Naruto tried to land a kick straight in front of him, only to have Kakashi Kawarimi himself with a wooden log, and stare at the boy from a tree branch nearby.

_Oh yeah…he was trained by a sensor ninja too…he's filled with promises, I kind of understand why Sensei wanted him back…He'd probably do fine in the forest of death, but he's got no long-range jutsus, so I should be safe here...but that means I can't get the kunai from him. I should have made the bell test, not this one._

As time slowly passed, Naruto's eyes remained closed, until he felt a sharp kick to the side that sent him flying on the ground, covering him in dust and dirt.

"I'm still a Jounin: I know how to hide my chakra signature." Naruto slowly stood up, his eyes still closed, the Kunai still held tightly in his hand.

Kakashi was already dashing forward, ready to make a hold on the boy and throw him away, while grabbing the Kunai in the meantime, but he stopped, because the boy raised his right arm, with the Kunai on hit, and stabbed it straight through his stomach, before curling into a ball.

"Wh-What are you doing!" as Kakashi dashed over to the boy, he had to stop, as the boy was actually sparkling with sparks of electricity.

"You're going to die boy!" He had to admit, those were steel balls, as blood was seeping on the ground, and probably Naruto was in a world of pain, as electricity would probably go through the Kunai, harming his insides, at the same time, however, Kakashi saw how the Kyuubi's chakra was closing the wounds, and that, that was the point where he actually could do nothing: if he stopped the chakra flow with the seal, Naruto would probably be grievously wounded, and he didn't know if he'd make it to the hospital in time, if he didn't Naruto would be in a lot of pain.

"Tell me…" Naruto muttered, holding the desire to scream or yell for the hellish pain he was going through, "when the five minutes are over...I can do this," with that, he kept silent, as Kakashi could do nothing but actually wait, staring at the curled and bleeding form of the blond haired boy, until he looked at the alarm clock, was it only three minutes? Time was quite likely coming to a stop, but it didn't matter, the boy didn't seem to move, and Kakashi, out of respect, didn't try to make him stop. He could probably injure him further, have him faint and grab the kunai, but going to such lengths just to prove one own point? He couldn't spit on that: that was a strong will, a really strong one. The alarm clock went off with a buzzing sound, and Naruto, actually, stopped curling, removing the covered in blood Kunai and slowly panting, as he opened his eyes, the wound on his stomach closing up, as the boy was covered in sweat and blood.

"I…I did it, right?" Kakashi simply nodded.

"Good…told you I could do it, bro," having said that, the boy outright fainted, but the silver-haired Jounin grabbed him before he could touch the ground once more, and slightly smiled, as the boy wasn't letting go of the Kunai even after having fainted from the pain, the stress, or maybe the relief for having won.

"He's a mess…better bring him home before someone thinks I killed him." with that, Kakashi Shunshin'd back to his own apartment, and undressed the boy to check on the stomach wound...who turned out to have already been closed, but then he noticed the weights on his arms and legs.

"He even had weights on him…the idiot, not even taking me seriously," as he muttered that, Kakashi's eyes widened in realization, no, it wasn't that he hadn't taken him seriously…the boy knew he had only one way to make it, so it wouldn't have mattered the rest.

The silver-haired Jounin removed the boy's weight, and stopped for a brief moment, there were signs on his arms of previously used ones too, but they seemed kind of…bigger, and having been badly used, as they left signs and probably slightly bended the boy's own bones.

"I kind of wonder how…" he muttered, as he grabbed a pile of old clothes he never actually used, and wrote a quick note for the boy, before leaving from the window…

The day wasn't over yet, and he had a report to make.

*Hokage's office*

Minato looked at the people in his office: there was Iruka, one of the chuunin level teachers of Konoha's academy, and the one in charge of Naruto's class, then there was Kushina, his wife and who was in the process of debating wherever to divorce him or not, then there was Maito Gai, and finally, from the window, Kakashi Hatake had entered just a couple of minutes earlier than expected. The entire room had frozen at such a display of…earliness, and a set of *KAI!* had echoed through the room for half an hour, before the silver-haired Jounin had sighed and taken his place among the others.

"Who are we still waiting for Hokage-sama?" as Iruka asked that, Minato looked at the watch, and sighed.

"The Toad Sage, Jiraiya-sannin, my previous sensei…he went researching his book since we came back from the land of iron, but he has yet to show up, so I called him over, but we can begin, and then someone will brief him in later on…first off, how was Naruto's first day of school, Iruka-san?"

Iruka sighed, before starting to explain, using hand gestures to bring emphasis to his words.

"He…he outright challenged me repeatedly in class, refusing to blend in, and spending the recreational time outside, alone on the roof, which he reached with an excellent use of chakra control, as none of the other students can do that quite yet…he's vocal in his distaste of Konoha, especially if it comes to relate with Kumo, but he doesn't outright hate the class, and I think he's gotten a bit closer to Shino Aburame, the most silent one and also the most isolated one…basically, he's an outcast who went with another outcast. He's Taijutsu is off the school charts, Hokage-sama, Kiba Inuzuka wasn't the first to challenge him, as he is the second best in the class, but Naruto-kun didn't break a sweat in defeating him, and he even pointed out that he wasn't considering them his enemies, or they'd be dead already." At the teacher's words, Kushina gaze turned worried for a moment, before Gai interrupted everyone else.

"Of course it is! I, the wonderful and excellent green beast of Konoha trained him for no more than six days, and he's been already wearing weights nearly rivaling those of Lee, my number one student!" as the man said that with pride, he also added, "he even wears this perfectly designed green suit and orange arm and leg warmers! He's clearly a good natured boy at heart though, as he didn't complain once, quickly making friend with Lee."

"Who's another outcast, because the boy's chakra coils are not well formed, right?" as Minato pointed that out, Gai's face turned a bit sorrowful.

"Yes Hokage-sama, but through hard training he's been the only Genin to pass the academy with Taijutsu only!" sorrow turned to pride as a sort of rising sun appeared behind the green dressed Jounin.

"He's giving the cold shoulder to me however," Kushina said, "and to Katsumi too, as he outright replies too formally to either of us, or simply doesn't and leaves, taking different roads every time to avoid crossing our path. Teuchi-san says he's a regular, but he has noticed too how the boy comes only when he's sure I and Katsumi are not there, sometimes even leaving half the ramen in the bowl if he needs to dash off." There was clear sadness in the voice, which the others associated to the boy being her *distant relative*, but Minato was the only one to know it was because it was *their* son she was speaking about.

"He call me *Bro*," Kakashi said with a chuckle, making the other stare at him, some in surprise, but one red-haired woman stared at him in envy too, "not only that, but he's outright accepted me in his plans, sharing them with me. That's the reason I actually arrived early…I need the approval to train him in the forest of Death."

"The forest of Death! My rival, have you gone mad! That's no place for a boy and…" as Gai said that, he was interrupted, but by Iruka, not by anyone else.

"He could make it," as the Hokage waved at him to continue, Iruka added, "he's got chakra control and Taijutsu, and he did say he finished the academy in Kumo, so he has to at least have an entire year of ninja experience behind, as it's the only way he could finish an academy and start another one, he was promoted one year before, thus he has to be a sort of prodigy."

"I was going to say that too," Kakashi replied, "he's a natural in surviving, Hokage-sama, he's hard headed, and prideful, but also loyal and goes to great bounds to avoid other suffering from him. He is not going to turn loyal to Konoha through force, that will just make it worst. As of now, he hates your guts, sensei, let me tell you that," Minato actually sighed, he had a thought it was like that, "and he's unsure wherever he should hate Katsumi-chan and Kushina-san too," that earned a shocked sob from Kushina, "but he won't do anything if he can avoid your presence, at the very least it won't worsen the problem, if you simply let him be."

"Are you saying I shouldn't talk to him at all! What about Katsumi! She's his…cousin!" Kushina managed to catch herself in time, but Kakashi's eye narrowed, before turning into a shrug.

"As of now, he needs time to adjust, and he wants to be as independent as possible from anyone who so vaguely he hates, he asked me to help him out, he trusts me, and I'm actually sure that, if he trusted his teammates, he'd go to great lengths to defend them. But he needs to be left in peace for a while, to sort his thoughts out."

"And why would he need to go to the Forest of Death, then?" Minato queried, perplexed.

"I might have told him that there's someone I know who buys poison…and I do have some inside contact in the interrogation and assassination departments of Anbu, and they too go through their poisons like Kushina-san and Ramen." The only one who actually chuckled at that was Minato, as Kushina on the other hand was outright furious.

"You're sending him in the forest of death to HARVEST POISONS! That's outright…"

"Kushina!" Minato snapped at the woman, who turned her fierce growl to Minato, but said nothing, letting him speak, "I take it he doesn't want the monthly allowance, right?"

"He refuses to be indebted with you, sensei, that's the reason. Furthermore, the shopkeepers are tripling the prices if not throwing him out, whenever he goes to buy something, he needs extra-cash or someone to buy things for him, but he's too prideful to ask someone else to help him out on his own problems, and he'd rather not involve anyone else."

"I see…then, if I refuse, he'd probably hate me more, but if I accept…fine, he'll be granted permission out of Konoha's gate only to go to the Forest of Death for training, but you will have to be with him at all times, Kakashi-kun…anything else?"

"I'd like to train the boy some more," Gai spoke, earning himself the surprised look from everyone else in the room.

"Why is that? You already have a Genin team," Minato replied, looking through the documents, "It's a Hyuga Neji, a Tenten, and Rock Lee, they are your students…isn't that a full time occupation?"

"Actually Neji-kun is too prideful to listen to anything but the Jyuken stile, Tenten is a long-range ninja, who throws kunais and other weapons, but is unsuited for close quarter combats, and Rock Lee is the only one who actually follows my lead without qualms…until Naruto came by: they could be excellent sparring partners, and both could ameliorate one another greatly."

"He's training with me, you know," Kakashi replied, "and I too have to say he's got a lot of untapped potential: just to make sure *I* asked for Minato-sensei's permission to bring him to the forest of Death, he accepted a bad deal of a one on one fight against me, in which he had to defend a kunai with his hands, and I'd win if I took it away."

"He actually won?" Minato queried, surprised.

"That he did sensei: He fought off bravely in close quarters, going as far as closing his eyes when I tried getting close with the sharingan, when I actually erased my presence and got the better hand on him…he stabbed himself with the Kunai and curled into a ball, refusing to let go until the time had passed. He even surrounded himself with electrical chakra, and that must have made him suffer a great deal more, but it didn't matter to him, sensei, he did it, he kept it up for the remaining minutes, showing also a great control in the use of…that, to regenerate himself," with those words, Kushina had outright paled, slightly shivering, and even Minato had a shocked expression.

"We could share him," Gai replied, "I could have him in the early afternoon and Kakashi-san could have him in the late afternoon."

"It would be better to have a full-round afternoon-morning training type, not splitting the afternoon." Kakashi replied, truth be told, he didn't *want* to share the boy.

"What about school!" Iruka exclaimed, "The boy needs to go to school, so he can at least make some friends his age."

Minato thought about it for a moment then chuckled before turning around and staring at Konoha, from the window.

"I've got a solution…" with that, he turned around to face Kakashi-san, and then spoke, "Kakashi-san, teach him the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, and tell him it's the Hokage's gift…he'll accept it, since he won't want to make either Gai or *Shino* lonely, and with that he might get closer to *not* hating me, and, by consequence, Kushina-hime."

"That is…if he actually wants to learn it." Kakashi replied.

"I'm sure he will if you're the one to bring it to his attention…isn't that right, *Bro*?"

**Author's notes**

**I'd like to point out that the general questions of:**

***Why doesn't Naruto simply kill everyone and be done with it?***

**Can be easily answered with: except that the Konoha's yellow flash only need a hand sign to have him out of commission, it's also because he's not inherently evil, or outright stupid, as the Chakra Chains from Kushina can easily *annihilate* the Kyubi's first tailed forms, a thing that Naruto doesn't know, but he does know she defeated Yugito easily, and to Naruto, Yugito is sort of the *motherly figure*, if she went down, what chances does he have?**

***Why doesn't he outright hate everyone?***

**Well…he was taught not to. He comes from Kumo, there *are* two Jinchuurikis there and they *did* bring him to the waterfall of truth, (albeit the flashback on what happened there is still to be seen), this means that, while he certainly knows hate, he doesn't outright prove it for everyone. He's been acting on the premises of being a *good* ninja…for all that it means to him.**

**Final notification:**

**Yeah, if you read the previous chapter and this one (the flashback) it turns out Minato stated completely different reasons for Naruto being in the village from what the Raikage's reasons actually were…**


	7. Adapting

Seventh Chapter

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, groggily staring at the mess of a room he was in. He was on a pale purple sofa, the floor was wooden and creaky and two open windows stood on one of the walls in the room, a small library with a set of orange-covered books which resembled the Icha-Icha collection, a bed to the side, a small kitchen in the corner, and the door that probably gave to the rest of the apartment. He was under a ruff wool sheet, and he realized, much to his dismay, that he was nearly naked, and covered in dry blood, his weights weren't in sight, and for that, he sighed. He still had, in his right hand, his kunai however, and with a small grin, he recalled the events of the previous hours. He stared at another pile of clothes, these ones more on the dark grey and dark blue shade of colors, and without even thinking too much, he was used to finding clothes waiting for him after all, he dressed up with the dark grey shirt and a pair of dark blue shorts, before staring at the piece of note written by Kakashi.

_Gone asking, food in the fridge, don't empty it, wait there…read something to pass time._

Naruto raised an eyebrow, staring around the room for something that actually *was* a book, but except the Icha-Icha collection of books, there was only one other book, who, strangely, didn't look like a porn one.

"_Tales of a gutsy ninja" by Jiraiya, might as well read this. _As Naruto thought that, he looked into the fridge to grab what looked like a nearly expired apple, if apples could expire, that is, and started to chew on it. He could have gone for the powdered ramen solution, but it was slightly trembling on its own accord…better not find out it could actually scream if cooked.

He took a liking to the book, as it narrated the tale of a ninja called Naruto, who fought valiantly to bring peace into a world torn by war. A pity the author had then taken a turn for porn. Maybe they weren't that bad though, he knew for certain that C actually had a couple of orange-covered books in his room: His room. At the thought of his room, of the apartment he shared with the other Kumo ninja, he felt like a knife starting to saw into his own heart, he felt pain, as the weight of what it actually meant to him, not being there, clashed against the thought he'd come back to where he belonged. It was two years, till he would meet them again, why not sooner? Why couldn't they come and visit him sooner? He was stuck in a city that hated him, why couldn't anyone write him something, like a letter or anything? Why was he being left alone? The words of the Hokage hit him like rocks: _"Seems like your *otou-san* was simply using you"_.

He shook his head, trying not to let the tears roll down his cheeks once more, he had thought he'd be fine, he'd just consider this like a sort of out of Kumo mission, but what if he never had a home to begin with? What if he simply was nothing more than a tool, to be taken and given and stolen and brought back, a tool which had no thoughts, no ideas and nothing else?

**So…crying are we? **The Kyuubi spoke slowly, more of a rhetoric question than anything else, but as he did, Naruto couldn't help but cringe.

_Why am I feeling hurt so much? _He had no-one else to ask, the Kyuubi was as good as anyone else.

**It's the pathetical thing you humans call *love*, it eventually leads to betrayal then scorn, hate and anger until anger becomes fury, and fury becomes revenge…sweet revenge.**

_So I'm hurt because I love? _Naruto didn't know if the beast was right, or wrong, but he knew hate wasn't the solution, the waterfall of truth had shown him that much, albeit he had ended up more battered and bruised than ever before. He shivered, he recalled his other self, emotionless, his eyes dead, nothing more than a tool, nothing more than *Konoha's perfect weapon*, nothing else, nothing to defend or to die for but those words and the finger that pointed at Konoha's enemies, that, he had sworn never to become, but still, the shivers were now running down his whole body, as the Kyuubi's logic clenched against his own beliefs.

**Kill one you do not love, you feel nothing, kill one you love, you feel remorse. Be betrayed by one you do not know, nothing is lost, be betrayed by those you love, and your soul is torn. Your heart is in pieces, you know, deep down, the truth…you have already felt what it means, Naruto, you know that nobody is going to come to you in two years, they'll ignore you, they'll outright scorn you, hate you even, because you were weak. Nobody loves you and I barely can withstand your presence. Face the truth: everyone is going to betray you.**

_No, that's not true! Kakashi-san spoke nicely of my friends, and he's helping me prank the Hokage, then there's Maito Gai and Rock Lee, there's also Shino too, tomorrow at school I'll meet him once more, and we'll be friends._

**Until they betray you: you will be betrayed again, Naruto, and when that time comes, you'll have no place to turn but to me, and I will *not* help you without a price.**

_Then I'll go without your help._

As Naruto received no reply, he slowly rubbed his eyes with his knuckles, and then waited patiently for Kakashi to return, while the gutsy ninja, in the book, kept on defeating enemies one stronger than the other.

"Found something you like?" the voice startled Naruto, who turned around just in time to see Kakashi raise his right hand in a salute way.

"This," Naruto said, standing to attention, and showing off the book he had been reading till then, "it's the only thing I found".

"There are plenty of books around here, Naruto-kun." Kakashi replied, pointing out to the library, and its shelves filled with Icha-Icha novels.

"Yugito-oneechan says that porn books dry the soul of manliness…but I never understood what she meant," as Naruto said that, Kakashi coughed, hard, before changing the subject of the conversation.

"I went and spoke with the Hokage, you know," and Naruto's face suddenly lit up, his eyes were sparkling so hard that Kakashi had to try his best not to think about how it would have turned out, had he not obtained permission, "and yes, he gave permission to train in there, but I have to be with you always."

"YES!" Naruto jumped in excitement, before stopping and staring at Kakashi, with a slightly embarrassed face, "I...I'm sorry."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, perplexed, what did he have to be sorry for now?

"You have to waste time with me…" Naruto replied, "I know you don't hate me, and we're bros, but…I'm sorry I'm taking away your free time."

Kakashi's only visible eye turned slightly watery, as he stared at the boy who had just given, with the puppy eyes he was using, a critical hit on the silver-haired Jounin's will never to have kids in all of his life.

"Naruto, listen: you are probably the only boy I can actually withstand being in the presence of for more than five minutes, so never, ever, say you're sorry again, especially to me. Got it?" as Kakashi said that, Naruto eyed him surprised, but quickly nodded.

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei," as the silver haired ninja moved to the door, that turned out be nothing more than a store room, a fact that made Naruto puzzled, as then it would mean there was no *door* out of the apartment, the Jounin came back with what looked like a small beige pouch.

"Here, as celebration for having lasted more than anyone else as my student, I hand over to you my very first Kunai pouch. There should be some Kunais and a couple of shurikens inside, so, it's all yours, but be ready though, since if we are actually heading to the forest of Death, you might go through them sooner then you expect."

As Naruto nodded, placing the pouch to the side of his belt, Kakashi beckoned him closer and then said, with a small grin, as he could hear Naruto's stomach grumble.

"However, first order of business is getting something under out teeth, so how about we head over to Ichiraku's ramen, and mark everything under Anbu's expenses?"

"Are you sure you won't get in trouble?"

"Don't worry," Kakashi ruffled the boy's hair, "I suppose they won't even notice."

With that, to Naruto much proven point, Kakashi jumped out of the window, and after a brief moment, was followed by the blond-spike haired boy, who followed the elder ninja all the way till Ichiraku's ramen, just hesitantly stopping before actually reaching the stall: there was a bright red haired woman staying there, who was slowly eating ramen.

"Naruto-kun?" Kakashi whispered, staring at the boy.

"She should be correcting homework right now for the students of the academy. Why is she here?" Naruto whispered back, as Kakashi actually was surprised: the boy seemed to have pretty decent skills in retrieving information.

"I don't know…maybe she finished earlier, or gave no homework? Anyway, it's food, you need food right now, come on," as Kakashi moved, Naruto followed, albeit his look was getting more and more dejected by the second, before he finally took his seat far more swiftly than Kakashi, ending on the opposite side of where Kushina was, and forcing the silver-haired Jounin himself to act as a *barrier* between the two.

Kushina bit hard on the chopsticks, to avoid making a scene, her son, her son that she had barely held in her arms when he already grown up was avoiding her, and she couldn't make a scene of it, because nobody was meant to know. She couldn't grab him and ask him why he hated her: she had saved him from his kidnappers! Why wouldn't he understand that? Why was he so keen on saying that the Raikage was his father, and not even think about her as his mother? To Kushina, the answer was clear, it happened that ninjas being kidnapped started to grow to trust their captors, she had felt that lull too, when she had nearly been successfully kidnapped by the Kumo ninjas, when she was younger, however Minato had come to save her and her interest in him had grown till it had become love. Still, why was Naruto so refuting the idea that the Kumo ninjas were the bad guys in this? Every time the boy spoke of his *onee-chan*, she cringed inside, thinking about that blond bitch who had dared make Naruto forget about Konoha.

She couldn't outright fault her, however, as she knew that Konoha had offered nothing but hate and scorn to Naruto, in his first years of life, he had been treated like a beast, that much was certain if one believed into the words he said, while Ibiki and Inoichi had talked to him. Even them, however, hadn't manage to crack one year of Naruto's life, between four and five, all that they had were the scrolls concerning the disbanded Root section of Danzo, and nothing more, and except for cruel regiments that had made her hate the man even more, there was nothing else. They didn't try to enter his mind, because if they had, then they just might have had a problem with the *alliance* with the Raikage, they couldn't just read into his mind, as they might discover some secret Kumo jutsus hidden within, or known by the boy.

She just wanted to be there for him when he cried, or when he laughed, she wanted to laugh with him, was it too much? When birthdays would come, she wanted to give him the gifts he would never receive, and…

What a foul she was! She had yet to give him back his own pocket knife! That must have been the reason why he didn't want to speak with her, she had promised him, and then she hadn't kept her end of the bargain!

She swiftly ate her ramen, paying Teuchi and then dashing off, if she made it in time she could still mend up things, at least a little bit.

"Thank you, Kami." Naruto whispered, seeing that Kushina had dashed off without trying to start a conversation with him.

"I have to ask…why do you hate the Hokage, and can't stand his wife? Isn't she your aunt?" as Kakashi queried that, the third bowl of pork ramen had arrived in front of Naruto, whose eyes turned sad before speaking.

"She's the one who kidnapped me, but while she wounded me here…" as Naruto whispered that, he pointed to his stomach, "With her chakra chains, the Hokage wounded Yugito-oneechan and that…that I cannot forgive." He slightly growled as he dashed through the bowl of ramen like it was nothing more than a cold drink on a hot summer day, before going for another one.

"So, you hate him more for what he did to your Oneechan, then for what he did to you?" Kakashi slowly pointed that out, managing to eat his own ramen while keeping the mask on, a feat he could do thanks to a slight side Genjutsu. However, he turned his gaze to both Teuchi and Ayame, and realized that while the first had a slight blush, the latter was outright sparkling and fawning on him, her hands clenched. Kakashi mentally sighed, he had forgotten about the front.

"Except the Hokage also chained me to a leash?" Naruto added, in a small murmur, "and he's doing all he can to outright prevent me from leaving?"

"Point taken, but he…" as Kakashi tried to stop, Naruto slowly dropped the chopsticks to the side of the bowl, staring at the copy-cat ninja with his best grievous expression.

"He didn't take me back, he kidnapped me. I'm in a prison, not in a village. There are jailers everywhere. Tell me, why not just send me back to Root and train me as a mindless weapon?" as Naruto whispered that, Kakashi sighed, letting his right hand pass through his own silver hair.

"Well, firstly, Root was disbanded. Second, this can be a village or a prison, but that depends on what you decide it to be…and I'm not one of the jailers, I hope," as Kakashi hinted that with a chuckle, Naruto sighed once more.

"It's getting late now, tomorrow morning, front gate of Konoha, don't be late." As Kakashi turned to leave, Naruto raised his right arm to stop him for a moment.

"But I've got school tomorrow." He whimpered.

"Tomorrow is Sunday, Naruto-kun, there's no school on Sundays in Konoha," with that, Kakashi turned to leave, he'd teach the boy the jutsu tomorrow, in the forest of death, might as well help him…he'd meet with Anko beforehand, however, might as well ask her what poisons she wanted this time.

The boy stood up too, waving goodbye to Teuchi and Ayame, before heading to the place he refused to call home, and preferred to simply call *resting place*.

As he slowly took a step after the other, not really wanting to go there, but at the same time not really wanting to stay out at night without a purpose, something black dashed off from the alleyway next to the street, as big as a lion, and it pushed Naruto to the side of a dirt road that had a dead-end on the other side.

Naruto would have screamed, but the lion's maw, while not filled with teeth, was constricting his neck, and as he was slowly lacking air in his lungs, an Anbu masked boy, dressed in black clothing, appeared to the side of the alleyway.

"We meet tonight, dickless Monster-kun," with that, the boy grabbed a brush, whose tip was covered in ink, and opened up a white parchment, "it will just take a moment, dickless, it won't hurt…I suppose."

"Raiton: Kangekiha!" the anbu masked boy had barely finished etching another ink lion, that the first one crackled and dispersed into a puddle of ink, as electrical sparks flew across the puddle and Naruto's right hand was brightly shining, as electricity traversed its surface.

"You…think, anf…anf, that I'll go down without a fight?" as Naruto muttered that, he dashed for the dead-end, earning a surprised stare from the boy, didn't he just say he'd fight?

The lion, once completed, appeared straight out of the parchment, and dashed on its four fast legs to grab the boy from behind, only to have the boy turn around, after jumping in mid-air, his feet landing on the wall behind him, the dead-end wall, and yelling.

"Raiton: Jibashi!" the sparks flew through the wall's surface and onto the lion, which, being of ink, was also in part water, and then flew straight cracking the surface of the road to where the anbu masked boy was, who, however, jumped to the side of the road, starting to walk on the building's side.

"Monster-kun, be good and come with me," the boy muttered, seeing how Naruto's eyes had turned into a steel gaze, before starting to dash toward the roof of the building.

"Stop!" Naruto jumped on the building's side, dashing in pursuit, as the kid anbu, meanwhile, started etching something else, disappearing from view as he reached the roof.

When Naruto came in sight of the roof, something pierced him straight through the left shoulder, sending him to gasp in pain, as what looked like an ink lance stood now immerged in his shoulder muscles.

"The ink I used is poisonous. Sweet dreams, Monster-kun." As the Anbu kid whispered that, Naruto's view slowly hazed out of conscience, and he found himself floating in the sewer system, the one that held the Kyuubi captive.

**You know,** the Kyuubi spoke slowly, only his red eyes visible from beyond the metallic bars of the gate, **I think I told you that I'd let you pay the price for your stupidity.**

_This is nothing! I can survive this! _Naruto replied, as he realized that the water level was slowly rising.

**No, *we* could survive this, *I* could survive this, you? You're going to get another round of Root-like training, brainwashing, and torture. So much for it being disbanded, still, you *are* the only one I can talk to. **As the Kyuubi spoke that, the water level reached Naruto's neck, and he felt his legs turn weak and sore.

_What are you talking about! And just what are you doing!_ Naruto yelled, as the water already reached his mouth, forcing him by instinct to keep it shut, as he was slowly losing his consciousness.

**What I should have done years ago: forcing you to change.**

With those last words, Naruto's consciousness closed itself, as the boy's body slowly drifted towards the other side of the Kyuubi's jail, but just as it was about to clench its paws against the boy, chains of chakra erupted from the side, grabbing him and bringing him back, as the water level actually lowered itself.

**Damn it…well, there's always next time. **The Kyuubi slowly thought, as he turned to gaze at what was happening, since the boy was regaining his consciousness, outside.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, just to see strands of red hair and Kushina's face turned towards the Anbu kid on the other side of the roof, who was dashing away, leaving behind two ink lions as a rearguard.

"Naruto-kun," Kushina muttered, "I'm sorry I'm being selfish," why was she speaking to him like that? Wait, her face was turned around, so that meant she still thought he was knocked out cold. He slowly closed his eyes once more, better to stay like that and avoid having to explain, or talk, with her, still, she kept speaking, "but no matter how selfish I am going to be, you're my son," noise of chains swinging in the air, hitting something and small roars echoing further away, "and I'm not going to lose you ever again." With that, he felt something soft and warm on his forehead, oh, it was a light kiss.

"By the way, I actually remembered, I know I can be an airhead from time to time, but here, better late than never, right?" with that, Kushina slowly pushed into Naruto's right pant pocket something long and hard…it took a moment for Naruto to actually recollect what it could be, but then, he just felt like cringing.

"Well…time to go to bed, right, Naruto-kun?" as she slowly lifted him up, he actually didn't weight that much, in her opinion, even Katsumi was heavier than him, and that was saying it all, she dashed back for his apartment, knowing full well he'd simply freak out if he were to wake up in the Namikaze mansion.

As she reached the door, she slowly opened it once more, staring in silent fury at what the room had, once more, become.

It didn't matter what the Hokage ordered, or what he did, people would still do as they please, knowing full well they'd get away with it, they could throw him out, and nobody would side with the boy, if a patrol ever came by, they'd triple the prices for him, and there would be nothing they could do, except buy them for him, and he didn't want that…he wanted to be independent, not like Katsumi who whined that on Saturday they should all go out shopping, just so she could use her parent's money and not her own. She was a good kid, a bit spoiled, but good never the less, on the other hand Naruto, her son, had decided to stand on his own two legs, doing a dangerous job for the money and for a tiny bit of freedom.

Still, she couldn't leave him there, but then where could she bring him?

"Kushina-san," the voice came from behind her, making her surprised, for a brief moment, before turning around to face Kakashi, her husband's ex-student, standing there with a perplexed, and even slightly worried, look, "is everything alright with Naruto?"

"It seems that, no matter what, people will hate him always." She muttered back, "Why do they have to hate him so much, I wonder, Hatake-san? What did he do wrong? He did nothing, and I can't help but think I'm the one whose forcing him through this…but I just can't let him leave again…another ninja attempted on his life again tonight, but he escaped before I could capture him…"

Kakashi said nothing, but mentally, he pinpointed the fact that the Hokage's wife had said *again*, like she had already left him once.

"He's a sweet kid, after all, he's the Bro of Hatake Kakashi, number one copy-cat ninja of Konoha," as Kakashi chuckled that, he grabbed the boy, smiling under his mask, "I'll take care of him, my couch is comfortable enough," Kushina slowly nodded at that, biting her lower lip, why couldn't she just bring him home? Why?

"Thank you, Kakashi-san…he's just a kid, and yet…he's already an adult inside…Kami will never forgive me for what I did to him, I know." With that, Kushina slowly moved to leave, and, minutes later, Kakashi did the same, knowing full well that Naruto, actually, was wide awake, albeit with his eyes closed, and as a single tear fell down the boy's right cheek, he started thinking that maybe he wouldn't call on him being a fake sleeper…not yet, anyway.

*Konoha's main gate, morning*

The sun had barely risen over the top of the highest of the trees that Naruto and Kakashi stood one in front of the other ready to leave the village for the forest of death, one in his dark grey and dark blue attire of old clothes, the other in his usual Jounin clothes, couple with what looked like a scroll hanging from the side of his backpack.

"So, you promise you're going to behave?" as Kakashi queried that, Naruto nodded, bringing his right fist forward.

"Bro promise, I'll follow your lead." Kakashi chuckled, and bro-fisted the boy back, the two guards at the gate actually staring at the scene dumbfounded, did Kakashi-san actually chuckle and bro-fist someone? That…well that wasn't at all…

"YOSH!" the scream made the two guards jump, as the *Sublime green beast of Konoha* actually dashed to a stop right in front of Kakashi and Naruto.

"Gai-sensei!" few seconds later, another cloud of dust and green stopped next to the sensei.

"Yosh!" Naruto replied, with a grin, taking position.

"Naruto-kun! Lee-kun!"

"Gai-sensei! Naruto-kun!"

"Gai-san! Lee-kun!"

"Naruto-kun! Lee-kun!"

"Gai-sensei! Naruto-kun!"

"Gai-san! Lee-kun!"

As Kakashi slowly paled, the trio stared into the horizon, a rising sun behind them, as they looked like they were on a desert island, the waves crashing against it, all three of them pointing towards far-away in the sky.

"My mighty rival, Kakashi-san! You're bringing Naruto-kun to the forest of death for training, right?" as Gai said that, Kakashi nodded, albeit he did silently stare at the horizon in hope for something to come along and grab the green freak out of his way.

"Yosh! That is very youthful of you! I'm sure you're going to teach him great things! Naruto-kun!"

"Yosh, Gai-sensei!" Naruto replied, with a wide smile.

"New weights for you! I'm sure you aren't even feeling your old ones!" as Gai-sensei actually produced a new set of weights, Naruto's eyes sparkled once more, he actually didn't have the old ones on, so he kind of sheepishly admitted it, receiving nothing but a shrug from the green duo, it happened.

Kakashi sighed: this wasn't at all going to end well. Moments later, Naruto was with a new set of weights, and, as he tried them out, his eyes sparkled some more.

"We're bros!" as he said that, and Kakashi actually cringed, Naruto had raised two fists in the air, one for Lee and the other for Gai, and both had actually started crying tears of joy at such a display of youthfulness, before bro-fisting the boy back.

"Yosh! I'll run thirty-five times around Konoha now!"

"Yosh Gai-sensei, I'll follow you!" with that, they both left to start their dashing experience.

Kakashi sighed, damn, was he actually feeling jealous at not being the only *bro* there was in Konoha? Still…it was better than the boy hating everyone.

"Naruto-kun, we have to get going, come on," with that, Kakashi started walking at a leisurely pace, staring at how Naruto swiftly caught up to him, even with his weights on.

One wouldn't think just the night before he had gone through excruciating pains as the wound in his shoulder had refused to immediately heal, instead the poison, a slow acting one, had begun circling soon after Kakashi had deposited him on his couch. Thankfully Kakashi wasn't an Anbu class ninja because he was good looking, and he had more than enough general purpose anti-venom to let Naruto kick it out of his system. The fact that the boy had insisted on feigning sleep, even thorough the harsh pains of the venom, was something Kakashi couldn't comprehend, it was like he actually wanted to feel the pain for as much as possible, and if the Jounin hadn't realized it, he probably would have suffered until the morning.

It was suicidal behavior, and yet there he was, smiling and calling *bro* even the two most idiotical ninjas of Konoha. Something was amiss in the boy, him and his being sorry for anything he did, claiming faults, and maybe, that was the thought that Kakashi dreaded the most, he was simply feigning having opened up, while in truth he was hurting, a lot, and refused to get help.

That was dangerous, but Kakashi was the only one who had, at the very least, managed to see through a slight crack in the boy's armor, all he needed was to pry it open with precise actions, but neither too soon nor too late…it was a tough job, but one that had to be done.

Slowly, the high electrified fence of the forest of death, training ground forty-four, came into view. Signs warning of how dangerous it was, of how fierce the beasts were, of how nobody less than chuunin level, and even then, always in a group of four, should enter the grounds came into view, Kakashi slowly moved towards the only entrance of the training area, a large metallic cube, with metal doors on both sides, one outside and one inside.

The guard inside the area stared for a brief moment at the duo, checking the documents that Kakashi had brought forward, and then, nodding, handed over two slips of paper to sign, just to point out that no, nobody was going to be responsible for them dying like idiots into the training ground because they decided it would be cool to have a picnic there.

"And off you can go." With those words the metallic door closed behind the two ninjas, who were now inside the Forest of death.

A small dirt road that abruptly ended into overgrowth areas and high trees whose branches covered the rays of the sun, the trees were more than huge, humungous, and the most important fact of the forest, was the utter silence that encircled it, it was like nothing, at all, stood in there.

"Well…this area here is relatively safe. First things off, how many hungry foul beasts are staring at us right now?" as Kakashi queried that, his only visible eye smiling, Naruto looked around, closing his eyes to concentrate, sniffing the air, going as far as meditating before finally hearing a slight twitch of a branch.

"Three?" he hazarded.

"You went by luck, didn't you?" Kakashi replied.

"Well…there's a snake on that tree over there," Naruto said, pointing out what looked like more like a wooden trunk, that actually had eyes, however, "there's a smell of wet fur coming from over there," pointing to some bushes on the other side, "and finally there's a strange looking spot on that tree's trunk, whose eating the trunk, by the way." Pointing at what looked like a dark brown beetle, only the size of a desk.

"Well…fine, just remember, silence doesn't mean absence of enemies. Let's get going, they won't attack until they have gauged our strength…they're smart the animals in here, be on your guard, they're used to ninjas." With that, Kakashi started walking towards the nearest tree trunk, to start walking on it, swiftly followed by Naruto, and as the two began dashing, Kakashi slowly, but surely, began distancing Naruto, who had, some time, the need to take detours in order to avoid more thin looking branches that would otherwise break under his weight, and that of his weights. At a certain point, however, a branch turned out to be a carnivorous plant, who actually possessed green looking tentacles, that grabbed ahold of Naruto's right leg, throwing him against the wooden trunk of the tree, making him gasp for air as he could feel his bones creaking.

"Raiton: Kangekiha!" as Naruto managed to complete the hand signs, before getting smashed against the wooden trunk again, as it was probably the way the plant fed, by smashing to a pulp stuff and then ingurgitating it, Naruto's right hand grabbed the first slimy tentacle, that, while earning him rashes, also brought the electricity forward straight into the mouth of the plant, the amount of chakra used big enough to kill an elephant, and earning himself a strange smell of…caramel?

"That's a sugar plant, of the forest of death…it's the weakest enemy out here you'll ever find," as Kakashi pointed that out, having turned around to go back to Naruto, Naruto panted for air, as he used one of the most sharp Kunais he had to cut himself loose from the tentacle, that oozed a strange dark brown substance, "that's a slightly addictive substance, used in the beginning of torture, if the subject is weak willed, since we *are* here for scavenging and training, grab this and collect it." Kakashi, who was standing sideways to Naruto, *sitting* on the tree's trunk, handed over to the boy a glass bottle, with a cork cap, and as Naruto filled it, before closing it, Kakashi chuckled.

"This is worth five hundred ryos', which means two miso ramen. I say we've still got a long way to go." Naruto nodded, staring at his hands, he resisted the urge to actually *taste* the stuff, cleaning his hands against the wooden trunk.

"Let's get moving, we'll find worthy *prey* near the river," As Kakashi moved forward, jumping and this time actually taking a route that Naruto could follow with ease, the boy stood behind the copy-cat ninja, a thought crossing his mind.

"You actually did this too?" as Naruto queried that, Kakashi chuckled.

"Yeah, when I was young, I found myself a bit short on cash, and I didn't want to depend on the Hokage's charity either. That's why I took on side-jobs, this being the most remunerative: I simply stuck to it until I became a regular shinobi." Naruto would have simply nodded, but him being behind the man meant he actually had to speak.

"I understand." He didn't pry for more details, as to why he'd be short on cash, or anything else, there *was* the third shinobi war in his period, at least, that much Naruto thought, having silver hair meant it was a bit difficult to gauge one's age on white hair, if the Jounin actually had any.

"We're in need of some *Hornet Devil*'s poison, those can actually be valued among the two-thousand to three-thousand and half ryos, per bottle…if we can subdue one of them, then we'd be probably set for the month." As Kakashi said that, Naruto raised a puzzled eyebrow, a low rank D mission earned five thousands ryos, and one could do one of those once per day, earning a grand total, if one was a hard worker, of one hundred fifty thousand ryos a month, enough to live with décor…so why was Kakashi saying that something like that would be worth an entire month of living?

The answer came moments later, when Kakashi gave the alt and pointed straight in front of him, to the river, which seemed empty.

"The Hornet Devil is a water serpent, its poison is something highly intoxicating and that has an overall wide range of application, going from interrogation to spiking drinks and even to cure rheumatisms… problem is the serpent itself."

"I don't see it, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto replied, he actually didn't, he could see the river gently carry its water downwards, but he saw nothing, not even an animal.

"Oh really? Now look at this Jutsu…" after a brief set of hand symbol, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" a perfectly similar Kakashi appeared next to the original one.

"…that's a Bunshin." Naruto replied, before having his air ruffled by both the Kakashis at the same time, "but it is real!" now he was in awe.

"Yep, now look what it can do." With that, clone-Kakashi moved downwards, toward the river, and mimicked drinking water, only to have the river bed rise and smash him, having him disappear in a puff of smoke. The serpent stood as big as one of the biggest trees of the forest, his green eyes actually were a pretty hue of emerald, as its scales stood on the back the color of the sand and of the polished rocks, while his underbelly was a soft blue color, it stared around in a mixed surprise, before slowly going back under the water.

"…Kakashi-sensei, that thing is huge." Naruto pointed that out.

"Yes, and normally I wouldn't fight it. Guess what however?" Kakashi replied with a chuckle.

"What?" Naruto queried.

"You will learn how to do a kage Bunshin, send it over to have the snake rise from the river bed, follow the kage Bunshin away, and then use your Raiton's electricity to give him a nice shock. He'll probably still be wet from the water, and if you act fast enough, you should be able to fry him and stun him for the time required…or we can go around all day long getting you mauled by the plants, your call."

Naruto gritted his teeth, no, he was there because Kakashi-sensei had offered up his free time to him, who was he to keep it all? He wasn't going to be selfish, bad boys were selfish, good boys weren't, good ninja acted for others, not for themselves.

He nodded to Kakashi, muttering.

"Let's do this: I'll master it in less than a day." Kakashi chuckled, that was a Jounin level Jutsu, he was pretty sure it would take the boy weeks if not months before mastering it, it was also the reason he had shown the boy the Hornet Devil, because he knew there was no way he'd manage it in a single day, and Anko would probably be in need of another type of poison soon...

Six hours later, as the sun was high above the sky, marking three in the afternoon, a group of Narutos attracted the Hornet Devil away from the water, and another group of twelve electrocuted him in various points, by jumping on him from above.

Then all, except one, grabbed the bottles and the syringes and started *extracting* the poison from the serpent's glands. While a group of six more remained on the snake's head, ready to electrocute it if it tried moving some more. Kakashi stared at the boy directing the operations, then at the knocked out snake, then back at Naruto.

_Just…Just NO! It's wrong! IT'S WRONG. This is wrong! Even sensei wouldn't have thought about this! It's just plain wrong! _As Kakashi kept rubbing his only eye, and even going as far as show the sharingan to make sure, there was no doubt, the boy had actually managed the Kage Bunshin in six hours. Six hours! Time wasn't the only thing that Kakashi deemed strange, the quantity also was another one. The Kage Bunshin required enormous amounts of chakra, as it had to be shared among all the clones equally, and one could die of chakra exhaustion, Kakashi himself could die at the sixth or seventh clone, but Naruto here? He was at his…eighteenth? And he still didn't look exhausted, well, not from chakra use at least.

He was a bit roughed up, the result of having trained and used the hand symbols repeatedly to such a degree and such a concentration that Kakashi had thought he had been pranking him for being overly serious. Instead it had turned out the truth, the boy simply was dead-set on learning it, and he was going to learn it, nothing would stop him from doing that, and that was the sole reason he had managed.

"Done, Kakashi-sensei!" as the Narutos all dispersed into smoke, but not before having brought all the glasses into the scroll that Kakashi had behind, a storing scroll that is, the silver haired Jounin started thinking that, in one year, he'd motion to be the one to teach the boy…the things they could do. Kakashi turned pensive, if he dyed the boy's hair silver, and gave him a Konoha's headband, with his used clothes he would be the perfect mini-Kakashi…the only problem being that he did have some sort of attachment to Gai and Lee, he shivered, thinking about him growing up into an adult mini-Kakashi and doing that scene with the rising sun with an adult Rock Lee.

"Well…you should be tired by now, right?" Naruto stopped to ponder the question, he wasn't actually tired. Sure, he was breathing hard, but was he tired? He could still learn but…he didn't want to be selfish with Kakashi. So he nodded at the Jounin's question, even he had things to do certainly, like going to buy something for his own fridge, to say the least.

As Naruto's stomach grumbled, as they started heading back, Kakashi chuckled, before starting to think at the face the Anbu Headmaster was going to make, at the sight of the expenses rising to exponential levels…

"Now, there is another reason *why* I taught you this jutsu, Naruto." As Kakashi spoke, Naruto nodded.

"First off, all the clones can use chakra techniques, since they all possess a chakra system, and chakra. This means that you could actually fool anyone with the Byakugan, or the sharingan too, as they are corporeal, albeit they do puff in smoke at the first hit. So here's the deal…you, the real you, will be going to train with Maito Gai and Rock Lee in the mornings, as muscle mass is the only thing that clones can't get," Naruto made a happy cry of joy, "but a clone will be sent to school, and if he disperses, a thing that you will know, you'll have to send another one, got it?" Naruto nodded.

"In the afternoon, you'll be with me, in the forest of death, got it?" Naruto nodded once more, albeit his happy face was soon replaced by a slightly saddened one.

"What is it now?" Kakashi queried.

"It's just…could you do me a favor?" and with that question, Kakashi raised an eyebrow in surprise.

*That Night*

Naruto looked around, surprised, at how things can change in less than one day, if you know the right people. More than that, however, he was surprised at how fast things can actually turn for the better, if you're smart enough to take advantage of the situation. Kakashi's apartment had given him the idea, as many Jounin and Anbu class ninjas were actually paranoid to the point that, when they actually bought an apartment, they asked for the door to be walled in, since they were more than able to either climb from the wall of the building, or to open windows from the inside out and vice-versa. So, that meant there were actually landlords who had said apartments on sale, and nobody queried where an Anbu masked boy, brought there with Kakashi himself as a guarantee, got the money for five full months of rent, nor why the name given had been that of Kakashi himself. Basically, on paper, Kakashi had two apartments, while in truth one was paid by and used by Naruto, the un-named masked Anbu kid.

That was the favor Naruto had asked Kakashi, and Kakashi, since it didn't matter to him, had actually complied.

Now, Naruto was staring at the ceiling on what was an actual comfortable bed, that nobody was going to ravish and destroy, nor tarn with pig blood, and the same he could say about the walls, freshly painted white. He did keep his Anbu mask on, however: it was a cheap thing, bought at a stall, depicting a dog face. Like Kakashi's. The reason the silver-haired Jounin had bought it, together with silver dye, *in case he needed more cover* had made Naruto chuckle and bro-fist his sensei. Well, he could at least try it, but maybe later on.

Tomorrow he was going to start his routine. First, he'd send a clone to school, and then, he'd go and train with Maito Gai and his student. In the afternoon, he'd go scavenging for more poisons with Kakashi, he wasn't greedy, but he did sleep better knowing he had a stash of money somewhere. He had kind of asked Kakashi why nobody else actually took said easy ways of earning cash, and the silver haired Jounin had replied that usually the only one who'd earn something from this would be Genins and Chuunins, and only if they actually managed to produce the same amount of chakra he was able to, a feat that, except making Naruto proud, few others possessed. This had meant that being able to electrocute the Hornet Devil wasn't something everyone could do in one day, nor to earn that much money. It was his special skill, and that, that made Naruto unique. He couldn't actually sleep, he was too excited!

For once, the thoughts of Kumo, of Yugito, of B, of Darui, of A and of C went in second order to the fact that he was surviving in Konoha like a good ninja. He was doing Yugito-chan proud by surviving on his own in enemy territory, and he would keep surviving until they'd come and take him back. Probably they thought that too, and that was why they weren't writing to him, he was a good ninja, they knew it too, and so they didn't want to pamper him like a spoiled child, by writing to him every five minutes.

**You're refuting reality.** The Kyuubi slowly spoke, as Naruto sighed, starting to walk in a line from one side of his apartment to the other. It was smaller than what the Hokage had offered him, obviously, just an attic with a storeroom to the side, the small kitchen in a corner, a common bathroom for the apartment complex, and nothing more, it was simple, but he'd keep simple and peace over luxury and chaos every single time.

_I am not. They're certainly only waiting two years for me._ Naruto replied, bitterly, why was the fox always so damn pessimistic?

**Oh yeah, I'm more than sure that the Nibi Jinchuuriki isn't writing because she doesn't want to spoil you. Nine-tails calls Naruto, she's the Nibi's Jinchuuriki. **The Kyuubi's voice was sarcastic, a fact that made Naruto perplex.

_What do you mean? _

**If I know one thing, it's that usually Jinchuurikis take something from the Bijuus they have inside, either it's physical, or mental, or social, or so on, in your case, you got awesome regenerative powers as long as my chakra keeps being in your body. I close the tap, you get wounded and suffer like any other idiotical mortal in the world.**

_And the Nibi would be make a spoil prone Jinchuuriki?_

**No, it does however make her quite motherly, like any mother cat is…which means she's probably somewhere, right now, crying the loss of her poor little kitten, whose thinking about other stuff and forgets about her, my, if someone told her she'd probably have a heart attack and she'd die of pain.**

_You're lying! _Naruto didn't know wherever it was the truth or not, but he didn't want to be proven wrong…he needed to do something! He'd write her a letter.

**Yeah, keep saying that little poor me is a liar, I'm your only friend, Naruto-kun, come on, there's nobody else who loves you, admit it already. Even Kakashi-san just sees in you some sort of peculiar alter ego of himself, and he's helping you because the Hokage ordered him to.**

_That's not true! _Naruto replied in his mind, staring furiously at the white wall, his fists clenched.

**He's a ninja, a master of deceit. Don't tell me he actually fooled you? You know where he is right now? I bet he's probably saying to the Hokage where you have moved out, and then he'll say it to the Hokage's wife, who'll say it to her daughter, who'll say it to her friends who'll say it to their parents, and those parents will say it around, until in one month, you'll be once more forced to move! **

_You're a liar, a dirty liar: I'm not listening, not caring. _Naruto placed his hands against the side of his head, but it was useless, the voice didn't come from outside, but from within.

**And what about Maito Gai? Come on, face it, he's helping you out only because he got the short end of the deal with that Rock Lee, who can't use a Ninjutsu or Genjutsu to save his life, he's a broken ninja, a worthless tool! Like you…**

_Shut. The. Hell. UP!_ Naruto punched himself to the side of the face, head-butting the white wall in front of him. _Shut up. Shut up. Shut up! _With every mental yell, he kept lashing out at the wall with his own head, until he fell on the ground, a strong headache nearly splitting his brain in half, although he didn't have anything on the par of wounds.

**I'm the only one you can trust, Naruto-kun, when will you realize it? If you die, I die, that's why I'll keep you alive as long as I can, that you can trust, Naruto-kun, nothing else. No-one here is your friend or your bro, they're your enemies, they hate you, Naruto-kun, and they feign they don't, but they do. But if you think I'm wrong…then let's make a bet, shall we?**

_What bet?_

**Ask Kakashi if he would have still helped you out, if the Hokage hadn't ordered him, remember that he is training you only because you promised him that you'd keep yourself in check, and he did say he'd kill you if you went against your own word...** **Ask Maito Gai if he'd train you too, if you had no potential. Ask Kushina, yeah, ask your *mother* too, if she'd have been forced to make the same choice as your father, which side she'd have taken! Who would SHE have sacrificed, huh? Come on! Admit it! Heck, even the Hokage is at the very least a bastard, but he doesn't try that hard to hide it from you! Why does Katsumi care about you being her friend? Her mother asked her to, I wager it's that whore's request. Trust no one but me, Naruto-kun, and maybe, maybe you'll survive long enough to see your *Yugito-oneechan* once more. By the way, you saw that? **As the Kyuubi said that, he referred to what Naruto had seen in the corner of the eye, as he had been silently listening, tears falling down his cheeks, at the fox's words: a slithering looming shadow, that had slowly begun expanding and entering from the window.

_I don't care anymore. If it's the masked boy from before…let him come._

**Oh no, you don't get depressed on me now!**

_YOU JUST MADE ME DEPRESSED!_

**What should I say; that I'm on my period?**

At that, Naruto's eyes bulged in shock, as he…chuckled, then grinned, then outright laughed as he rolled to the side, avoiding what looked like a long prolonged tube that had ended where moments before, his body would have been, the tube however slowly slithered back to the one who had *thrown* it...making it either a really intelligent tube or something different.

"Well, you're fast alright," the voice spoke with a feminine voice, "but you're a bit on the mad side, you know? Why don't you come in the moonlight, so Anko-chan can see who dared to harm her poor Slithery-Kun?"

"Sorry, sorry, it's just that…I was crying myself out five seconds ago and then…he spoke, or better, she spoke…and…well…it all went more on the crazy side of the night. Kami I don't even know who slithery-kun is." Naruto sighed, taking a deep breath, as he shook his head, he had enough of this. He just felt spent, he'd rather crash on the bed and go to sleep right then, then query who the mad woman was. She was in the light of the moon, having entered from the window, to reveal a sort of pineapple purple hair, a fishnet shirt that had a flak jacket to cover the important bits, coupled with a beige long coat and a dark brown skirt, she did have the Konoha's headband on her forehead, however.

"You know…I'm starting to think you don't even know what you did to make me come here," as the woman said that, Naruto shrugged, and went to the bed, "and just where are you going?"

"To sleep," the boy pointed that out, "I'm tired, tomorrow is another harsh day of hell for me, so if you want your turn on the demon boy, by all means do what you want, I won't stop you…just don't ruin the stuff in the room."

"Oh, so you're mad. That explains why you knocked out *my* Slithery-kun. The poor boy came to his mama crying, you know?" the woman, Anko, moved closer to Naruto who had just sat on the bed.

"And he asked me to punish the one who…wait, demon boy? You're Naruto, aren't you?" as she queried that, her tone went on the softer side, a bit strange, but Naruto nodded silently.

"Yeah, that's the name alright. I don't know who this slithery-kun is however…and really, I'm just tired, and it's late, and…"

"Slithery-kun, it's the Hornet Devil's name, the one you nearly deep fried to death, I know him since he was but a snake egg, half the snakes in the Forest of death are there because I brought them there, I'm Anko-chan, the Snake Mistress, and if you touch a snake in there, I'm the one who comes for your balls…nobody told you?"

Naruto shook his head.

"No, Kakashi-san said it was the fastest way to earn money…and I needed to change apartments, and to stop surviving on the Hokage's…charity." As Naruto said the last point with spite, Anko shrugged.

"Yeah, that's why I came here, I thought it had been Kakashi-san, going over the edge, I did tell him I needed some Hornet Devil's poison, as Slithery-kun was hunting for winter, and in this period he actually bites anyone, even me, but when I saw you in the dark you didn't have his height, so I thought you had used a fake name, and was about to apprehend you for the interrogation department…why are you here in his apartment though?" as she queried that, she had actually sat next to him, stretching her arms up in the air, as she yawned too.

"Why are you sitting on my bed?" Naruto queried, but received a frown and a shrug in answer.

"You answer my questions and I'll answer yours."

"Well…if I rented it with my name, sooner or later somebody would come and mess it up, like they did with the one that the Hokage had offered me."

"Well, to find out who did that to Slithery-kun, I had to follow the trail and the smell of the culprit, yours was the strongest, but it still took me quite a bit of the day and some of the night to find you, and by the time I did, which is now, by the way, I felt tired, which is the reason I'm crashing in your bed tonight." As Anko said that, she yawned once more and fell to the side, actually grabbing more than half of the bed and of the bed sheets.

"Wh-What? But I…"

"Slithery-kun is *mine*, you actually *stole* his poison from me, and I even *bought* it from Kakashi, he's getting a piece of my mind tomorrow, but till then I'm taking compensation, that's what I'm doing," with that, Anko muttered once more, "and that's final."

However, Naruto didn't miss the tone in which the woman had spoken the last sentence. No, he hadn't missed it at all, it was the same tone that he, once, had used too, it was the tone of those who were actually in need of someone to spend some time with, the voice of the lonely. Without another word, Naruto shrugged and sighed, before getting to sleep, something bad had to have happened to the woman, he was sure about it, otherwise, why would she actually be willing to sleep in the same bed as the demon boy? Well, except for him being a nearly eleven year old…which reminded him that his birthday was just around the corner…tenth of October, he cringed too right then, starting to slightly shiver, not because of the open window or because of the fact he had little to no bed sheets, no, because he could actually feel it in the distance, the songs…albeit only a figment of his imagination.

_The Monster is dead, the monster is dead,_

_We all know the monster is dead,_

_The Kyuubi's gone and won't come tonight,_

_Let us sing and cheer and enjoy the night._

_His spawn is foul but soon to be dead,_

_Let us hit him again, until the ground is red,_

_And if he survives then another night,_

_We'll come back and we'll set him alight._

The last four verses were actually an addition to the normal songs, a special one too, since they sang it only to him, and only in the past, and uniquely for his birthday, how lucky he was, now, however, that melody kept haunting him, like a disc set on repeat, until sleep finally decided to be merciful, and bring him to the land of dreams, but in a way of its own, it decided that a stop should made…in that of nightmares.

As the boy cringed and started to slightly move in his sleep, Anko couldn't help but mutter at her own idiocy, sure, she was half drunk, sure, she was slightly pissed for having had her Slithery-kun wounded, sure, she was angry at the fact that someone had, once more, killed one of her snakes and had written *Snake bitch* with the snake's entrails, sure, she didn't want to go home to her *kids* to sit there eating dangos while they ate live mice, but did she really have to crash in the same bed as a kid? Still, the boy hadn't been too vocal, maybe he actually understood? Probably he did, she knew that he was the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, and she knew of what some of the civilians, and even some of the shinobis, actually did to him on a regular basis, or had done to him, but hey, everyone had it tough, she because of her own sensei's betrayal, he because of something that wasn't his fault. She had been used, he was being used. Still, hearing him whimper, she began to think that maybe it was just for the cold, as she did grab all the bed's sheets for herself, she was like the snakes on that regard: she needed warmth, like she had cold blood or something.

She turned around, to see the boy who still had the Anbu mask on, he hadn't removed it once, she made a slight grin, thinking about how it must have been uncomfortable, so she slowly moved her right arm to the side of his face, and two small snakes popped out, gently removing the boy's mask and allowing her clear view of his lineament. He actually did look kind of cute, blond hair, whiskers marks on the face, as he breathed in more calmly, probably without the mask it was easier to sleep, she grinned, she just had the perfect idea to cheer herself up…with that in mind, she slowly stood up, the boy, tomorrow morning, was going to be in for a big surprise.

*Next morning*

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, as the sun basked inside the room he felt something slither on his chest. He stared at the thing and two eyes stared back at him, the serpent's tongue tickling his nose. He didn't scream, he didn't actually think it was real, so he kind of muttered, half asleep.

"Would you please let me get up?" to his surprise, the snake actually nodded, before moving away, allowing Naruto to stand up without harming him, and looking around the room, he raised an eyebrow.

Since when was there a small bunch of trees on the side of the room, coupled with a green looking sofa that had…scales? The sofa had scales! It wasn't a sofa, but a curled up snake the size of a sofa that stared at him and actually looked bemused. Naruto rubbed his eyes, before looking at the storeroom, whose door had been removed to make room for a set of glass aquariums, only filled either with rocks and small snakes, or water and dirt for the sea ones, there were snakes everywhere.

…**This is better than me revealing I'm a girl.**

…_I've gone mad, I see snakes everywhere._

**Hey, I see them too!**

_You're no longer with the evil tone of doom?_

**There are snakes in the room, you get it? SNAKES.**

_Yeah and?_

**Not afraid?**

_Well…I did defeat a Horned Devil, didn't I? _

The Kyuubi didn't reply, as Anko suddenly entered from the window, a stick with dangos in her mouth, and a wide grin.

"Well! Since you did rent the room for five months, and you did that with the money the guys in the interrogation department and I forked out for the poison from *my* snake, I decided that I was in need of a change of scenery, I'm staying here for a couple of months, you don't mind, right?" as she said that, Naruto…the boy actually stared at the woman in surprise.

_Hah! Now this is a good prank on the brat, he'll go mad and I'll remove them in the blink of an eye, and then…_

"Fine by me," with that, Anko's dango stick dropped as she stared at the boy with her mouth open.

"There are snakes in your room." She pointed that out.

**I told him that too! **The Kyuubi obviously knew nobody could hear…her, but still, she tried.

"So?"

"It's…They're snakes! Nobody likes them except me!" as she gesticulated, the sofa actually moved to purr against Anko's legs, it was a quite happy serpent now that his owner was back.

**Yeah!**

"They're better than half the Konoha's population," Naruto replied, as Anko…Anko actually shared that opinion with the boy, "and if they're here, then I'm sure nobody is going to try and trash the place again. You bring your own bed though, clear?" Anko actually nodded at that. The boy was actually reversing her prank on her! That had to be it…he was joking, right?

"Well…I'm off to school…Anko-san, see you later!" As Naruto said that, he actually reached for the window, before stopping and turning back to grab the Anbu's mask that stood on the bed's cover.

"Better to have this on…so they don't connect me to the apartment."

Naruto, now masked and still dressed with the old clothes of Kakashi, dashed out of the room's window, leaving behind a half dumbstruck Anko who was actually stuttering to her own snakes, who in turn listened intently to the woman, but didn't speak, while he on the other hand created the shadow clone to send to school.

"Why me?" Clone-Naruto whined, as he dashed off.

"Sorry pal: you heard the sensei!" Naruto replied, as he went off in a different direction, his right hand going into his pants pocket, clenching tightly onto the pocket knife he had gotten back the night before.

_Otou-san…no matter what happens, I'll choose Kumo. No matter who happens, I'll choose Kumo, so please…just wait for me._

Another Kage Bunshin was instead sent to buy paper and ink…he'd write a letter, he needed to at least *try*…he needed to believe they'd reply to him, at least to explain, and now…now he was going to test the fear of having been abandoned, but if they didn't reply, then what would happen to his sanity? Would he still be able to choose Kumo? No, he shook his head, he had decided. He'd choose Kumo, no matter what!

**Author's notes**

**No, the pairings haven't yet been decided, Anko is there because she's there, not because it's become NaruXanko. Yes, it's a femkyuubi.**

**To cobra: the hidden village canon council is made up by just two other people: the third's ex team members, but it's a sort of *canon fanfiction* rule that the council is actually composed by more people than that. In the case of the Konoha I write about, there are both a civilian side and a military one, in order for both sides to be perfectly equal, and only with the Hokage to act as a focal point, and he can be replaced if there is a majority rule to change him for someone better. For the second point, he actually stops that somewhere in the chapters, don't worry.**

**To Naginator: as a certain dwarf uses to say *D'arvit!* well, I'll stick to Dattebayo, it's pretty much the same…I hope. **

**To Kyuubi-sama: The third and the fourth decision are mimicked, thus if the third's actions produced something, the fourth happens the same way. Furthermore it's not difficult to see that kicking him out and tripling prices is fairly easy to do, just to change it when a patrol comes around *if* it comes around.**

**To dbzsotrum9: time to time you'll see what's going to happen.**

**Ezcap1st: they don't yet, because he hasn't been doing more *ruckus* since the decision to have him go alongside the other in the academy, and the fourth's plan is sound: if he makes friends in the leaf, he might be more bent towards staying in the leaf, even though it's risky, it's still better than having to explain Kumo why the guy who had to choose where to go in five years is now emotionless and obeys orders only on konoha's command.**

**I hope I have answered all your qualms/questions for this round. Hope you enjoyed the chapter just as much as I enjoyed writing it. (There is slightly less Naruto suffering in this one. Or more tension breaking events…one of the two.)**

**There was no Kumo *other side*, because really, seeing a crying Yugito in a corner of a room is…oh well, next chapter! **


	8. Revealing

Eighth chapter

It wasn't the darkness, or the stench, the first thing that came to his mind, it was the despair. It was palpable, one could actually feel it deep within one's own bones, it stirred and moved like a beast of its own will, as spilt milk lay everywhere, he stared at the figure, who was curled into a corner, silently sobbing in the darkness, as there were wounds on her arms the form of claws and blood, dried or still wet and dripping, was everywhere. A muffle of a familiar voice echoed into his ears, calling his name, cursing the gods. Why was he feeling so emotionless? He had a mission, right? He was the perfect weapon and she was just an emotional baggage he needed to clear off, to become perfect. He needed his Kunai to drive through here throat, to see the warm blood gush out from the open wounds. He needed that, he had to have that…he was Konoha's perfect weapon, and all of the Hidden leaf's enemies would crumble and fall, even that long haired blond woman, who considered him maybe more than a brother, maybe something else, it didn't matter, she had to die, then why was someone yelling at the back of his head not to? Why was there someone there yelling at him, as he turned his steeled blue eyes towards another corner of the room, to stare at the crying blond kid, who was yelling at him to let his *Oneechan* go? But more than that, why did the boy actually think that he'd be listened to? He wasn't a good ninja anymore…He was just Konoha's perfect weapon, the one and only, Naruto Namikaze.

Naruto's eyes popped open in fear, as he gasped for air, after a cold bucket of water hit him to bring him back among the awoken. He stared with a mixture of anxiety, but also relief, at the familiar scene of Lee and Gai both worried and fawning about how the flames of youth should burn far more brightly even after him being knocked out cold by one of Lee's special moves.

"That…That was…one hell of a ride," Naruto chuckled, as he raised his right hand that Lee actually grabbed to help him back on his feet, "but if you try that again, I'm requesting permission to use a Kage Bunshin to take it."

"Yosh! The flame of youth shines brightly onto us once more!" as Gai said that, his eyes burned with the fire of youth, as he then went on explaining the lesson once more, "Taijutsu's principal strength is that it's simple to pick up, but difficult to master, but once mastered, it can defeat anything else. You know why, Naruto-kun, Lee-kun?"

"Yosh! Because Taijutsu's train speed, the fastest ninja wins first, isn't that right sensei?" as soon as Lee said that, Gai gave him a right hook, sending him to *slide* on the ground, creating a sort of crater where the boy stopped.

"Wrong! Naruto-kun?" as Gai turned to Naruto, the boy gulped, before hesitantly trying out his luck.

"It…requires more hard work than the other two?" He then automatically picked a defensive stance, only to be surprised when no hit came.

"Precisely! Lee-kun! We train harder because we want to master something difficult! Everyone is able to make hand signs, but true art is learning all moves! True art is having the flaming fire of youth burn brightly into you, as you reach higher and higher levels! Now stand up and join us as our flames shine brightly!" as Gai helped Lee back up, the boy's eyes were set aflame with renewed determination.

"Gai-sensei! Naruto-kun!"

"Lee-kun! Naruto-kun!"

"Gai-san! Lee-kun!"

As a dawning sun echoed behind them, Naruto's eyes caught something in the bushes once more, and dashed off as fast as a hare to grab it.

"A shuriken!" He chirped happily, putting it into the beige pouch that Kakashi had gifted him, and then staring perplexed at how both Gai and Lee were looking at him, tears in their eyes.

"Such happiness from such a little thing…Naruto-kun! To become as happy as you I'll do five hundred push-ups and then drink a sip of water!" as Gai said that, Lee replied.

"Sensei! I'll do it too!"

"Yosh!" and with that, they both began doing push-ups, soon to be joined by Naruto himself.

As those three did that, someone, on the other side of Konoha, in the ninja academy, was in the process of staring at the *let's gang on the new kid* group, that had Kiba Inuzuka first in line, with what looked like a Hyuga, a certain Hinata, staring at the scene in fright from behind a tree. Clone-Naruto sighed as he stared, arms crossed, at the Inuzuka boy, who had gone for over five minutes of recession in speaking and going to great lengths about how he'd make him suffer. The other kids were probably on that because either Kiba had convinced them that it was better Clone-Naruto than them, or because they simply enjoyed taking their stress off on one they thought would back down.

Clone-Naruto simply stared, his gaze unfazed, as Kiba finally finished his rant.

"…and stop looking at me like that! You are not superior to any of us, and you will realize it after you have eaten dirt! You Kumo lover! Only a bunch of worthless trash comes from Kum…" Clone-Naruto's right hand began sparkling with electricity, as he stared at the Inuzuka.

"This voltage is enough to kill a small puppy, you know?" as Clone-Naruto muttered that, Kiba actually smirked, in the beginning.

"Like I were a small…" then he paled, as he realized that electricity tended to move around a body, and there a small puppy slightly growling in the front of his jacket.

"Good you understand. By the way, *I* am superior, to all of you and…" he didn't finish the sentence, because suddenly Katsumi dashed into the middle…taking HIS defense?

"Kiba-kun! And you lot too! Leave Naruto-kun in peace! You shouldn't bully him like that!" as she pouted that, her long red hair flowing in the wind, Clone-Naruto actually had a tick mark appear on his forehead, just what went on with the red-haired woman and girl he knew? Did they think he was some sort of defenseless puppy? Like the one he just wanted to deep fry to prove the point that yes, as a ninja who just so had one year of advantage on them, he was the smartest one, the strongest one, and probably the only one with kills under his belt?

"Ah! Hiding behind a skirt, typical of Kumo nin…" Kiba would have wanted to keep talking, but a laugh made him stop, it was Sasuke's actually, that had just arrived to take place next to Katsumi.

"Hey Mutt-boy, the Kumo ninja here actually kicked your but in Taijutsu, the only thing you are barely decent in, even with your numbers, there's no way you'd have the balls to take us on."

"It's nine against three, Uchiha! You won't get…"

"Ehm…you know I'm a clone right?" at that, everyone stopped to stare at Clone-Naruto, who sighed, scratching the back of his head, "you didn't know? I'm a Kage Bunshin. Real one is training with Maito Gai and his student, Lee; I'm here to do attendance at his place."

"Oh…what's a Kage Bunshin?" at that question, done by Katsumi, everyone else actually coughed, yes, they had the same question in mind, even Sasuke, who instead of coughing simply growled slightly, why was the boy stronger than him? He was the last of the Uchiha, he was *meant* for power, not the boy from Kumo!

"Not telling," Clone-Naruto shrugged, as an idea to avoid being harassed came into his mind, "just ask the boss of us, if you ever manage to see him again, that it."

"W-Why would that be?" Katsumi's eyes actually turned a bit sad at the thought that she wasn't going to see the real Naruto *ever* again, at least, she had understood that, but as Clone-Naruto face palmed, she waited his reply.

"I come to school, in the morning the real one trains with Maito Gai and Rock Lee, in the afternoon, he goes with Kakashi-sensei to train in the forest of death," a set of gasps echoed through the boys, even those who wanted to gang on him suddenly decided it would be a better idea just to outright ignore him, everyone knew the drill of the forest of death: if you were a bad boy your parents would bring you there, and you'd have to stay there for the night, with snakes and lions and wolves coming out to eat you, "so there's no way you'd meet the boss."

"…I could come over to your house?" as Katsumi suggested that, Clone-Naruto chuckled.

"What's so funny about it, Dobe?" Sasuke muttered, staring with eyes filled with envy and anger at the boy, while Katsumi thought of this as a way for Sasuke to defend her, the truth was that the last of the Uchiha was simply outright foaming with jealousy: that damn brat had it all, he had training with more than one famous Jounin, he trained in harsh conditions like the forest of death, and nothing seemed to make him lose that stupid grin.

"Can you walk on walls or trees?" as he queried that, Katsumi stared at Naruto surprised.

"I can climb trees alright, why?" as the red haired girl replied that, Naruto shrugged, and moved closer to the side of the school building then, while whistling, he brought his left foot forward, then his right foot, and slowly began walking a couple of feet in vertical, while sticking his feet to the wall's side, before slowly getting back down.

"Unless you can do that, there's no way you can get into my house, and I won't be telling you where I'm living…I don't trust you," those words actually hurt Katsumi, weren't they supposed to be friend? "And I don't trust you," pointing at Sasuke, who scowled, "nor any of them," pointing at the boys who stood together with Kiba, "the only one I trust is Shino, at the present...and that's all, recess is soon to be over, and I don't want to be late for class," with those final harsh words, he actually dashed up the wall, and reached back into the classroom, leaving behind a bunch of surprised students, who stared at such a leap and such strength, and a foaming with utter blind rage Uchiha.

"I…I'm going to learn how to walk on walls!" Katsumi yelled from down below, "and then I'm going to make you trust me! And then you'll show me where you live! DATTEBAYO!"

Clone-Naruto rolled his eyes over: did she really have to yell like that? Shino, who stood next to him, raised an eyebrow in a quizzical expression, but then, as a small twitch appeared on his lip, something akin to a small smile, he muttered.

"You sure you want bugs in your house?"

"I've got snakes already, and you're a friend…at least, I view you as such." Shino said nothing else, still, he thought if sending his flea armies on Kiba's hair would be a bit too extreme, as they would then probably move to Akamaru's fur and later on to all the dogs in the Inuzuka's kennels, unless Kiba actually washed before the end of the day…a thing he wasn't so sure about…until he actually connected the *I've got snakes already*.

"Snakes?" he queried, making sure he had gotten it right the first time.

"Snakes," Clone-Naruto replied nodding, "turns out, Kakashi-sensei probably took the wrong snake to trifle with, and its owner came at me last night slightly pissed, then, for reasons I'm trying to block out of my mind, this morning she had nearly completely *transferred* into my apartment..."

"She?" Shino queried again, this was getting, to say the least, interesting.

"Yes, the owner of the snake was a female," as Clone-Naruto whispered that, since people were already returning to class, some being outright scolded by Iruka for being late, among which stood a very pissed off Sasuke and a really stricken down in melancholy Katsumi, Shino nodded, he had heard correctly.

His mind raced to stuff he wasn't meant to think about, and slowly, but surely, he erased any notion of it from his brain, except for the fact that Naruto shared his apartment with someone who liked snakes.

"Understood," he whispered quietly back, before having his bugs start to move the pen around, to take notes for Iruka's lesson, while the blond boy simply lay down to sleep, bored to hell, as he had already studied that, years before, thanks to Yugito-oneechan…

*Kumo*

"And this is how the third Shinobi world war came to an end, everyone wrote that down?" Yugito queried to the class of Kumo academy students, who nodded back at her with a *yes, Sensei*, just in time as the bell rang, and everyone dashed out of the classroom, leaving behind Yugito, who stared at one specific desk.

_That was his desk. _She thought bitterly, as she slowly moved near it, to delicately trace with her fingers on the poorly etched words of family, and the names below. She recalled it like it was yesterday, it had been the first time she had been called *Oneechan* after all.

*Flashback*

Yugito had just barely gotten the news, that she was already dashing full force for the Kumo hospital. She had even left behind Karui and Samui, with whom she had been idly talking about how it was actually quite stressful to teach kids in the beginning, but it then grew with her. She had lost track of time, and by the time she had realized she should have been going to grab Naruto from the school's outdoor training ground, as they had chakra control exercise that day, a ninja had hurriedly arrived to speak with her, about Naruto being in the hospital. The thing that was making her cringe the most was how the reason the boy was in the hospital to begin with, he had repeatedly slashed his wrists till the bone, the only way for a Jinchuuriki's regenerative power to take time to heal the wound, and he had actually managed to bleed to near death, before C had luckily felt a fluctuation in the chakra patterns from a slight distance, and had dashed in just in time to see a scene from a badly drawn hell picture, of the bathroom actually covered in more blood than he thought a human boy could possess. It was good it had been C, who was also a medic Nin, meaning he had managed to provide first aid and that had probably saved the boy.

Had it been her…she'd have panicked, she'd have probably cried, and Naruto would have probably died into her arms, that small blond boy who shivered every time one said the word Konoha, and who had such sad eyes she just wanted to cuddle him to death, as did Matabi too. When she actually reached the hospital's waiting area, she saw that they had taken out the lightning rods, as there was electricity all around the air, and had the rods not been in position, many would have already been zapped by A's *electrical* presence.

"WHERE WERE YOU!" the Raikage actually yelled as Yugito took a jump back in fear, before B actually managed to intercept his brother from outright trying a Lariat on the poor girl.

"Bro! Calm down! She has no fault on that! Come on! That's why they aren't letting us see the little bro: you keep zapping around in anger!"

"I'm sorry," Darui muttered to a nurse who was too shocked to say anything, "the chief is in a pretty bad situation right now."

"Wh…Why did he do that?" Yugito whispered quietly, as Darui actually sighed before replying.

"Not a clue, but he did write *worthless* on all of the bathroom surfaces, with his blood."

"Actually…I think I have a theory," C spoke slowly, as he walked out of the room, closing it behind him, his hands were slightly covered in dried off blood, and he was shaking his head in disbelief, "makes me want to break a neck or two." That meant it was serious, as C wasn't much bloodthirsty, at all, he was a sensor and an excellent medic, and had no qualms in taking a kill if needed, but he never actually wished to murder anyone, and that, well that was a first.

"C! Is he going to make it? Is the Gaki going to be fine?" as the Raikage queried that, actually worried, C nodded.

"He'll just need some rest, he not only slashed at his wrists, but he also drank and ate anything even slightly poisonous that was in the bathroom...if he hadn't been a Jinchuuriki, he'd have probably been a goner even before I could sense him."

"What…what's your theory?" Darui queried, he too was a bit shaken about C's words.

"Well…today he had chakra control exercises in the afternoon, and I know it not only because he told us last night," B, Darui and Yugito nodded, "but also because I felt his chakra spiking up repeatedly, as he tried to do what the instructor was tasking the boys to do: having the leaf stick to their forehead. As a Jinchuuriki, with all that chakra, his control is abysmal, at best."

"So? What happened? If the instructor said anything I'm snapping the man's neck and…" as A spoke, C shook his head.

"No, it's not that, when he failed, repeatedly, he was dejected, but otherwise his chakra remained normal, a bit, well, sad, I must admit I was checking on his chakra's intensity and signal, but I didn't think he'd go to such lengths, and well, at a certain point the lesson must have ended. Everyone else left, probably parents came and everything, until in the end he remained there alone. Waiting." C's gaze turned towards Yugito, quite expecting a reply from the woman at that point, but since the blond Jinchuuriki's gaze stood sideways, in shame, C silently nodded and kept talking.

"He then began walking home, but when he reached it, there was no-one inside, right?" B and Darui stared at each other, the first saying.

"I was patrolling."

"I was with B," the second adding.

"That's when his chakra started turning sadder. In the end, he probably entered the bathroom and I dashed as swiftly as I could back home, because I felt it getting weaker…I saved him by miracle, mind you, he actually did all the best he could to die."

"So it's my fault," Yugito whispered, her heart was actually paining at the notion, "I forgot to take into account time, I was talking with Karui and Samui and so…when I realized I was late that's when I was called here."

"Why did the little bro turn suicidal, C?" as B queried that, C's gaze turned to fury, as he clenched his fists rising them into the air.

"I'm snapping those bastards neck! He's got a massive load of brainwash inside of his brain! He just needs to start a thought pattern, and off he goes! All he needs to do is think he's worthless, and he starts a self-destruction cycle! Some of them are something too far complicated for me to act against, it *has* to be the work of a really skilled mind-diver, a Yamanaka from Konoha, probably…what makes me even more furious is that the boy keeps saying he's sorry for not having DIED properly! I need some fresh air. He's stable now, but unless you cool off, A-sama, you can't go in, sorry," with that said, C walked off, clouds of smoke appearing from his ears as his face made a couple of nurse scream in fear.

"Bro! Let's go outside and calm down, okay?" A nodded slightly, albeit he was torn between wanting to enter and not wanting to further endanger the boy, if sparks made contact with an oxygen's canister, or worst, something inflammable like Alcohol, it would be even worse.

The only two that remained in front of the door where Yugito, who was clenching her hands tightly, and Darui, who was looking at the Nibi Jinchuuriki.

"You should go in," Darui spoke slowly.

"He hates me, I'm sure of it," Yugito whispered back.

"I say it's the exact opposite: you weren't there, that's what started it all, just go there and he'll probably be happy about it," the white haired Jounin replied, before turning to go outside, "I'll be buying *be well soon* gift cards."

As Darui left, Yugito gulped before moving her hand towards the door handle, slowly opening and peaking inside, to see one of the hospital's white beds, with light green bed sheets, a small bed desk to the side, and the window's curtain open, slowly moving to the light breeze that was coming in.

On the bed stood a slightly pale Naruto, staring into the distance, out of the window, as his blue eyes were kind of stinted, and looked more dead than alive. He slightly turned his head to the side, when Yugito completely opened the door, and a flash of guilt and sadness overcame his otherwise emotionless face. Yugito slowly entered the room, closing the door behind her, but didn't know what to say to the boy, why he did that? Why he tried to kill himself? Why not wait for her? Did he really think everyone had abandoned him? Who'd do this? Who'd actually insert a mental conditioning for committing suicide into a kid no more than six?

"I'm sorry, Yugito-san," Naruto whispered, meekly, as Yugito's eyes shot forward in surprise, "I couldn't kill myself fast enough…I'm sorry I'm still inconveniencing you." Yugito didn't think any six years old boy would know the word *inconveniencing*, but what made her shiver, and made her eyes watery, was the absolute truth that Naruto poured into each of the words he had barely said. He actually thought that, that he should have died more swiftly, that he was a burden, and nothing more. This was just…cruel.

"Naruto-kun…I'm the one who should be sorry, not you," as the blond Jinchuuriki spoke, she quietly took a seat next to the boy's bed, "I didn't look at the watch, I should have been there to take you…" but Naruto shook his head.

"No, I couldn't do the exercise, I was worthless: it was the correct thing to do as Worthless is to be abandoned so that it may kill itself," Naruto's words stung, because he wasn't using *I*, he was using *It*, like an object, "a worthless tool is to be discarded, but do not worry Yugito-san, It will discard itself quickly, once it can find something to use that is more worthy than it."

A slap echoed through the room, as Yugito stared, tears falling down, at Naruto's face that was simply sorrowful, for having been slapped, probably *it* should have just killed *itself* sooner, and now obviously Yugito-san was angry at *it* for not having done so.

"Stupid. Stupid idiot! It's obvious you can't make that exercise! You're a Jinchuuriki! You have loads of chakra but abysmal control! I couldn't do it too the first time! Nor the second! Or the third!" as Yugito yelled she moved closer to Naruto, hugging him tightly, "you just need to try again, try until you succeed! I'll be there, for you, always. I can't guarantee I won't ever be late or away for some time, but I can swear to you that I'll never abandon you as long as I can…nor will B or C or Darui, or even the Raikage! He was the one the most worried you know?"

Sobs gurgled their way out of Naruto's mouth, as he too began crying on Yugito's shoulder, who gave him a light peck on the side of the face, using her left hand to gently rub his back.

"It's all right, everything is fine, Naruto-kun, there's nothing to worry about…your Oneechan is here."

"Oneechan…" he had whispered, silently.

*Flashback End*

Yugito recalled how Naruto had said nothing for the reminder of the day, and even once discharged, and having been nearly choked by A, who was half crying and half yelling at the boy for his idiocy, he had said nothing else, until the next day, at school, he had kind of insisted, in his silent way, to go to school from that point on. That was when he had etched on the desk the words family, a sort of lines that had A with *father* written next to it, and Yugito and B as *Oneechan* and *Oniisan*, with Darui and C being the uncles, a thing that did make Darui a bit sad, but he had taken it with a chuckle when he had learned about it. The Nibi Jinchuuriki stared at the desk once more, recalling the small nib of conversation she had had with him that day…

"_Naruto! What are you etching on your desk?" _

"_No-Nothing Yugito-oneechan!"_

She hadn't corrected him there and then, albeit the class had stared perplexed at their teacher, who had actually blushed and been embarrassed about it…but deep down, that warm feeling had remained. Then when they had been meeting with A, and he had called the Raikage *Otou-san*, with such a voice, even the Raikage had suffered a near heart attack, before furiously dashing through the adoption papers. He had done an all-nighter, but had pulled it through, just to call the boy *son*.

And now…

"What Oneechan am I, if I can't go and save him?" Yugito whispered to the empty classroom, as she slowly moved to the exit. She had taken back her job as teacher, because otherwise she would have turned mad, doing nothing but trying to find out what was happening to Naruto in Konoha, and because the postal office of Kumo already saw enough of her in the afternoons.

There had been no replies, yet, and that, that made her afraid. Postal Ninjas were fast in deliveries, using a system of hawks, birds, and fast runners, and you could get messages everywhere, even across great lengths, in little to no time.

As Yugito slowly moved towards the postal office, determination set not to leave until she'd gotten at the very least another explanation, she was stopped in her tracks by a man.

"Yugito-san?" The man was someone Yugito knew, a man who didn't, at all, hide his hate for B, Motoi. Motoi had his father killed by the eight tail beast rampage, years before, and once B had begun its Jinchuuriki, the hate had moved to B himself, he was the only man who outright hated B, and by consequence, who didn't like Naruto. Which meant that the only reason he had stopped Yugito was either to make fun of her, of Naruto, or of B, and that made her slightly growl.

"What is it, Motoi-san?"

"I've been…well…"

"OUT WITH IT!" She snapped in fury, making the man actually make a slight jump backward, in fright.

"I was looking for a reason why there were no replies!" he exclaimed, and, with that, Yugito stared at the man surprised, why would he do that?

"But you don't like Naruto," she whispered perplexed.

"Look, what can I say? That I realized that my ways were fickle years ago, but that I didn't have the guts to speak with B about it? I thought I could at least look into what was happening to try and amend my ways," wherever Motoi spoke the truth or not, Yugito could see that his face was slightly saddened, and nodded, her gaze turning softer.

"I see…so what did you want to say?"

"The message disappears halfway through the land of the Lighting: it doesn't even reach Konoha's own postal service! There's some insiders work on it, but I don't know who!" as Motoi whispered that back, Yugito's gaze turned feral, to say the least.

"Motoi-san, out of the way, I've got to speak with the Raikage about this," the man jumped sideways, scared, as the woman started walking resolutely, stopping only for a split second to say, turning her gaze back on the man, "B doesn't hate you, Motoi-san…just talk with him and everything will be fine." Then, the Nibi Jinchuuriki strolled off, in furious anger.

Someone was going to pay for trying to keep her away from *her* brother.

*Konoha-afternoon*

Naruto stared at Kakashi with a really deep gaze, his face slightly torn by the need to query why the Copy-cat ninja's hair had turned a mixture of bright purple and sparkling green, and by the desire not to pry too much on his sensei's tastes of color.

"Well, I might have slightly underestimated your skills Naruto-kun. Yesterday, I didn't actually think you'd be able to take down…*Slithery-kun*," with that, the ninja shivered slightly, "in one day, I thought it would have been a month's worth achievement, or more…and that we could have gone on less dangerous creatures for a while…and I didn't know that that Horned Devil was one of Anko's…" he shivered again, "so…can you forgive me?"

"You didn't know, it's not your fault," Naruto shrugged, before staring at the front gate of Konoha, ready to depart once more, only, this time, there also were both Sasuke and Katsumi…with Kushina, being a bit behind them, "but I kind of wonder why they're thinking they can fool us, in believing we don't know that they're following us." As the duo started walking on the road, Kakashi sighed, before starting to explain.

"I say Kushina-san is worried about you, Katsumi-chan is probably on her quest to make you open up, and Sasuke-kun…I think he just wants to test you out as a rival."

"But I can snap him like a twig easily!" Naruto whined back, before suddenly seeing two other *him* dashing nearby, both Narutos waving at the original one.

"You could have dispersed, he'd get all your knowledge that way," Kakashi pointed that out to the two clones, who, surprised by that, as they hadn't thought about it in the spur of the moment, albeit Kakashi had told him about it, certainly, the two disappeared into a puff of smoke, as Naruto, the real one, grabbed his forehead for a moment, emotions rolling in from both of them.

"I got the paper and the ink after camouflaging myself as a sexy female anbu? Just what was that clone thinking?" as Naruto's face turned slightly red, Kakashi stared with a perplexed look at the boy, why did he have to mention stuff like that?

"Oh, and by the way, Kiba and his gang tried to mess with the clone, Katsumi seems to have promised to get me to trust her, and to convince me that she's worthy of coming to my house, because she wants to learn the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, Shino doesn't seem to like snakes very much, Iruka's lesson was boring, and that's pretty much all," Naruto avoided to mention the clone's bout of anger at not trusting anyone but Shino.

"She could ask the Hokage for the Jutsu. He was the one who asked me to teach it to you." As Kakashi pointed that out, subtly, he kind of hoped that the boy would simply accept the deal without a fuss. Or he kind of hoped he'd make a fuss, and then understand it was a really nice jutsu. What he didn't expect was Naruto staring at him, with slightly saddened eyes, and whisper back to the purple and green-haired Jounin.

"Oh…did he order you that, or did he ask you to?" the question wasn't with malice, anger, or hate. It was just…emotionless, a question without any hint of emotion inside, like it was querying the price of a tomato at the market stall, or if the fish was fresh.

"He…" he could have lied, actually, he could have said the Hokage had asked him to, but hadn't ordered him that, he could have, but he realized that lying would just make things worse, as the boy didn't take it lightly to lies, "he ordered me to." Naruto said nothing, but nodded.

"Why would he want that?" the boy queried once more, "It's a nifty jutsu, why would he give it to me?"

"He…" _if I tell him that it was to make him train with Gai and me, he'll ask why he knew about that, and I'll have to tell him that I'm giving reports of his training to him, and that would mark me as a spy for the Hokage…I'll have to keep some info to myself_, "wished to make peace with you, by offering you a secret forbidden Jounin-level jutsu."

Naruto shook his head, staring back at Kakashi, his voice now a low growl.

"If he wants to make peace with me, then he should remove the leash, apologize to Yugito-oneechan and let me go. Then…then I might not hate him so much. That, however, will never happen." As Naruto's eyes narrowed, he gritted his teeth, turning around to face with a furious gaze at Katsumi who had been tiptoeing nearer by the second, like her mother and Sasuke.

"And can't you just stop following us!" he yelled back at them, before turning around and departing with an increase in his walking pace.

Kakashi sighed, turning around just slightly to bow his head in a sort of *I'm sorry he steamed off on you* expression, as, behind them, the group had stopped for a moment in their tracks.

"He found us out!" Katsumi pouted, stomping her right foot on the ground.

"You *are* dressed in orange, Katsumi-chan." Sasuke pointed that out with a slight growl, obviously the boy wouldn't have been able to see him, if he had really tried to hide.

"Now, now, as you can see Naruto-kun is certainly busy with Kakashi-san…do you really want to follow him if he doesn't want you to, Katsumi-chan?" as Kushina queried that, a saddened look on her face, Katsumi stared back to her mother, and then, clenching her right fist and raising it up in the air, she proclaimed.

"I promised I'd make him trust me Kaa-san! This is the first step: I'll invite him personally to my birthday party the tenth of October!" with that, Kushina had an idea too…

"Katsumi-chan," Kushina said with a small smile, "You're a genius!" hugging her daughter tightly.

"Wh-Why Kaa-san!" Katsumi replied, slightly blushing from embarrassment, as Sasuke stared at the scene with a small grin on his face.

"It's the same day of Naruto's birthday, the tenth of October! Let's make a party also for him!" as she said that with a wider grin, Katsumi's eyes sparkled too, double party meant…double cake!

"Hai! Still…it's strange his birthday is the same day as mine, when was he born? And how do you know it Kaa-san?" As Katsumi muttered that, Kushina bit her tongue, it was obvious her daughter would be curious about that.

"It happens to be born the same day, and I know because…he told me, and he also told me how he never ever celebrated his birthday before," well, that was a little white lie, what harm would it make? It did however make Katsumi even sadder than before, as she renewed her decision to help Naruto make friends and come to trust her.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Kakashi had already gone through the gates of the Forest of death, and Naruto, strangely, saw that someone was waiting for him already.

Kakashi coughed a bit, as he shook his head in dismay. Anko stood there, tapping her right leg on the ground and behind her stood the Horned Devil himself, albeit bandaged and with a good amount of band-aids on it, his emerald gaze set on Naruto, who slowly moved closer.

"Naruto…" Kakashi whispered trying to warn the boy that maybe it wasn't that smart of an idea.

Anko had probably planned to scare the boy too, but what surprised Kakashi was the purple-haired woman's smile at the sight of the boy, who simply smiled back to her, before bowing his head to the giant snake.

"I'm sorry I harmed you Slithery-san, it won't happen again." As Naruto politely apologized, the snake, much to Kakashi surprised, actually nodded, before starting to slither back to where his river was, as Anko chuckled.

"Well, if he forgives you, then it's fine Naru-chan," as Anko said that with a slightly teasing tone, she then grabbed the boy by the shoulder, and looking and Kakashi she grinned some more, "I'm showing the boy around, you scarecrow can go elsewhere."

"As much as I wouldn't mind reading some more Icha-Icha," that earned him a look of disgust from both Anko and Naruto, since when where the two on such good terms he wondered, "The condition for him to train in the forest of death is that I always stay with him, that's what the Hokage ordered." As he said that, once more a look of slight sadness lingered for a brief moment on Naruto's face, a thing that Kakashi didn't miss at all, before returning to his normal half-smiling self.

"Well, no big deal then, scarecrow here will just have to follow us!" with that, Anko grinned even wider, grabbing Naruto by the waist and with a strength the boy himself didn't believe a woman could possess, he was actually carried in a dash up on the tree branches, and then brought from tree to tree, with Kakashi following nimbly behind, actually having to make an effort every now and then, to follow them.

"Anko-san! Care to explain the sudden interest in *my* student!" as Kakashi yelled that, Anko simply turned her face around while in mid-air, sticking out her tongue and bringing her free hand to her left eye, to mock the multi-colored haired ninja.

"I'm living with him after all! I'm showing him off to my family!" with that, Anko actually sped off, as Kakashi, shocked by such a revelation, had his face connect with a tree branch, leaving him on a lower branch, utterly…surprised? Just what was passing through that woman's head? And…just *when* did she decide that with Naruto? And when did the two meet? And…he had a lot of questions, but first, he had to get back on track.

"Summoning Jutsu: Pakkun!" as soon as Kakashi finished biting his finger for blood, and summoning out a small dog, with a leaf headband tied around its neck, the dog stared back at Kakashi in surprise.

"Yes Kakashi-san?" he queried, slightly perplexed at being called at such an hour of the day.

"Sniff Anko out for me, would you? She's bringing my student to her den in the forest of death...and she changes its place every day." The ninken dog nodded, before starting to run on the smell of the purple haired ninja whose scent he was already familiar with, it wasn't the first time he had to smell it out, as Kakashi occasionally went by himself into the Forest with him, at a later hour, to buy or sell poisons.

"You actually took a student?" Pakkun queried, recalling his master's previous words.

"He's…different. Not a prideful brat, not a spoiled one, he's having it tough but he's fighting on. He keeps his promises too…I'm the one at fault most of the time, actually." Pakkun replied nothing in the beginning, as he kept on dashing, letting the strangely rarely used tone of Kakashi to seep in, before finally speaking once more.

"You changed your hair color? I see only shades of grey, but they're all very vividly different."

"Anko thought it would be funny to mess my hair shampoo with green and violet dyes." Kakashi replied, his tone turning a bit on the sore as Pakkun started laughing out loud thorough the forest.

Meanwhile, *team Kushina*, stopped at the gate's entrance.

"Well, we missed him: so it's time to go back." Kushina muttered sternly, she would have probably been fine, going in there, but she couldn't risk Sasuke's or Katsumi's safety.

"But…Kaa-san!" Katsumi whined, "Naruto's in there!"

"If he can do it, I can too." Sasuke muttered, trying to enter, only to be stopped by Kushina's hand on his shoulder.

"No, he's in there with Kakashi Hatake, my husbands' student, and Naruto himself is strong, trust me, I saw him in action once, and he nearly destroyed a bridge too," at those words, both Katsumi and Sasuke stared at the woman in surprise, so his words at school weren't a bluff, "so they can handle themselves, you two, on the other hand...Katsumi-chan, you spoke of wanting to learn how to walk on vertical surfaces, right?" as Katsumi nodded, Sasuke's face turned into a scowl once more, as he faced one of the gates for the forest of death.

_One day I'll go through this alone, and I'll surpass you, Naruto! All to kill that man!_

"Then I could teach both you and Sasuke, if you want." Well, better start from something like that, Sasuke nodded too, he'd get his revenge for being treated so poorly, one day.

As this went on, Anko had reached, after five minutes, a small natural cave to the side of a covered in bushes meadow. Slowly making her way in, as some snakes slithered towards the noise they had felt, before stopping and turning their gaze back to their own nest, as it was simply their *mother* coming home, she started talking to the bundle with blond hair under her arm, that didn't seem so much fazed by being carried like a bag of potatoes.

"You know, I do have weights on me," Naruto muttered, "I should weight a bit more than any regular ninja should be able to lift."

"Then that means I'm not any regular ninja? Lucky me!" with that chuckle, Anko dropped the boy on the ground where, following a bit of a strong thud, a mass of wriggling snakes actually moved from the far corner of the large round cavernous complex, to reach towards the source of the noise.

"Look here! The eggs hatched! My, how cute these little ones are, are they your hatchlings, Scaly-chan!" as Anko queried to a side of the cave, Naruto was starting to think that maybe, maybe, the woman was mad. That was before the wall of the cave revealed to be a snake whose scales were the same color as the rock, as it opened its eyes slowly, a faint purple iris, and staring at the two. *Scaly-chan* actually nodded, before hissing something to the mass of little snakes, who started slithering back towards their mother.

Naruto stood up, cleaning himself as much as he could from the dirt, and realizing that something was slowly making its way up his right leg.

"Ehm…Anko-chan, there's one coming up my leg I think." He meekly said, as the cold sensation was actually giving him goose bumps. Anko simply grinned saying nothing, as the slithering sensation moved until the snake actually got to his chest, and then out from his right sleeve. It was an albino snake, white, with red eyes, probably didn't have a good sight at all, and had gotten lost, as it curled around Naruto's right arm, for warmth.

"I take it you don't want him back, Scaly-chan?" As Anko queried, the snake nodded back, and, with a shrug, if snakes can shrug that is, she went back to the side of the wall.

"Well, you don't mind bringing him home?" as Anko queried that to Naruto, the boy looked a bit surprised.

"She's his mother." He whispered, pointing at the side of the wall, "why doesn't she want him back?"

Anko shrugged.

"He's different, to her eyes, he's a monster, or worst, and that's just how life is, some things happen, some things don't happen, they're the same, yet different. Well, anyway, she threw him away, you either want him, or you don't, in that case he'll probably go outside and get eaten by a bigger snake, maybe one of his brothers or sisters eventually." As Anko pointed that out, she looked with a slight grin at the boy's extremely shocked face.

"B-But they're family!" he outright yelled.

"That's the way it goes in the world, Naruto-kun, some things are meant to be that way, only the strong survive, the weak get eaten…" as she moved to leave, Naruto stared at her, and then realized something.

"You're…" Now Anko knew it, he was going to hate her for those words, and he was going to tell her to leave, obviously she didn't care much, it was better off this way for the both of them, so…when Naruto spoke, she actually stopped for a second, turning around red in her face, and stuttering back:

"W-WHAT DID YOU SAY!"

"You're kind." He whispered, with a chuckle, "all the snakes you have brought in your apartment…they're the weak ones, right?" Anko took a step backward, as Naruto instead took one forward.

"You actually don't enjoy their way, and you do what you can to save as many as you can, that's why there are a lot of aquariums with small snakes inside and why you have a lot of them with you, you take care of them until they're strong enough to fend for themselves, and then you release them." He was getting closer and closer to Anko, who took another step back.

"No-uh, I'm the snake mistress, you see, I'm using them, yeah…I'm…using them?" She meekly tried that approach, but Naruto shook his head.

"That were the case…why bother giving them names? Just call them weapons and be done with it." The second sentence came out with spite and anger, actually.

"…I'm not good, at all." Anko insisted on the point, come on, she was the third most hated person in Konoha, the first obviously being Naruto, the second being her former sensei, and she being the third one, nobody ever called her kind! Even Kurenai, who was her friend, used mostly the words *sly bitch* with affection! That was the most of a compliment she had ever received! *Kind* wasn't in the list!

"I'll call you Shiro," Naruto muttered to the albino snake, who stared at him with his red eyes, his tongue slightly hissing out, Shiro liked the boy's warmth and if his name was meant to be something which started with an S, it wasn't going to be bad. Always better than being pushed and nearly crushed by mother.

"So you're going to keep it?" Anko queried once more, hesitantly, "You know he's going to feed on mice, eventually, live ones too?"

Naruto shrugged, "if he manages, he manages, if he doesn't he'll certainly come to like ramen."

"A snake that eats ramen? Now…if you actually manage that feat, I'm going to wear a kimono for an entire week!" as Anko chuckled on that, Naruto grinned back.

"Oh…you're going to see what I can do if I try my hardest!"

"Yeah, Anko-san, I wouldn't have told him that." The voice came from the cave's entrance, where a Kakashi, who was in the process of being surrounded by snakes, that slithered from the holes in the cave's walls, stood, holding Pakkun under his arm.

"Boys you must be nice, he's a wimpy scarecrow, but he's fine…for the moment!" the snakes slithered away once more…slightly annoyed they weren't going to bite him, "and what do you mean I shouldn't have told him that?" as Anko queried that, Kakashi got closer.

"He master a Jounin-class secret jutsu in less than six hours, trust me, he can and will make that snake learn to eat and appreciate ramen. When he does, you'll have to wear a Kimono for a week." Anko slightly paled, before turning around, and much to his dismay already realizing that Naruto was in the process, his eyes sparkling and all, to explain to a really interested Shiro the qualities of ramen.

"Kami help me." Anko muttered.

*Hokage's office-later that night*

"So, what was so urgent?" as Minato queried that, Kakashi scratched the back of his head, before speaking his mind.

"Sensei, I think we're taking the wrong approach."

"Why would you say that, Kakashi-kun?" as Kakashi had spoken to him like the student he once was, Minato had turned to use a more familiar tone with the…multi colored ninja.

"He stopped trusting me," Kakashi replied, "sure, we trained but…it's no longer the same, once I told him you ordered me to keep an eye on him and give him the jutsu…he simply stopped trusting me. He calls me Kakashi-sensei like always but…his eyes are no longer filled with trust when he looks at me."

"Then you just have to take it back, invite him over to ramen or something," as Minato said that, Kakashi shook his head.

"Turns out he's taking a liking to Dangos and he outright said he'd go with Anko-chan," the Yondaime looked at his student like he was seeing an illusion, before shaking his head, letting Kakashi speak till the end, "rather go to the ramen stand…probably because Kushina-san was there, waiting for him. He's acting like an enemy ninja in enemy territory, sensei, he uses the Kage Bunshin to scout ahead, and makes them disperse to avoid what, to him, are hassles, like Kushina-san and Katsumi-chan, and he must have learned a jutsu to alter his form, so that the civilians don't recognize him when he goes to buy something. He's pretty skillful in that, I must admit…he did show me what he used…and I think even you sensei would have problems with that." Minato's face paled.

"Is it some sort of ultra-strong Genjutsu? Who taught him that?"

"No, it's a henge…only…well…in conjunction with the shadow clone technique, so it's…real and…" Kakashi's face turned a furious crimson color, "he calls it *Sexy no Jutsu*, it's lethal against any male ninja, it should be classified as a forbidden jutsu." Now Minato was actually intrigued, did the boy just modify a Jounin class jutsu, making it even more deadly? Sure...the name should have given it away, but he was still intrigued.

"I see, well then, can you explain the *Anko-chan* situation?" as Minato queried that, Kakashi nodded.

"It seems that last night some high class Jounin entered Anko-san's apartment, tearing apart a couple of her pet snakes, since she was already furious for what had happened in the forest of death with one of her *friendly snakes*, she decided to crash into where she thought I'd be, to give me a piece of her mind, but instead she ended up in Naruto's new apartment, that…"

"New apartment?" Minato queried, "Why does he…"

"Sensei…you should ask him, please, do this to me as a favor, he already doesn't trust me, if I say more, he might outright loathe me and it would make things even more difficult," as Kakashi actually pleaded, the fourth Hokage nodded, saying nothing else, but hand waving him to continue.

"Had been signed with my name, then I don't know what happened, but this morning both where on friendly terms, so much that Anko brought him to one of her *dens* in the forest of death, to meet *her family*, when I reached them, Naruto was happily talking to a recently acquire snake pet…and it turned out that Anko is staying in Naruto's new apartment, as she enjoys *the change of view*, and the boy is fine with it," Minato's face was bulging in shock, "even with the snakes Anko brought with her."

"So you say we need a new approach, right, Kakashi-kun?"

"I say we should let him settle in, sensei, a couple of weeks of academy, a couple of weeks of training with me, of seeing people around, of coming to terms with his *position*, and everything should at least turn out better, than if we press on repeatedly. We won't achieve anything in the short term, he's still easy to mistrust others, but he does have a knack with outcasts…he might open up more with Anko and her cheery to go attitude than with any of us." Minato's eyes narrowed for a moment, a thought flashing into his eyes, before the Hokage's face turned into a slight grin.

"You're right Kakashi-kun…you even gave me a good idea. You're dismissed."

As Kakashi turned and left, Minato stared to the open window, as a man with long white and spiked hair stood there, staring with a slightly angry face at the Hokage.

"Minato," the man spoke slowly.

"Jiraiya-sensei?" the Hokage spoke quietly, staring at Jiraiya's silent entrance into his office.

"I heard an interesting tale, you know, about how there's a father who still hasn't gotten the guts to confess all the truth to his wife," as the toad sage said that, Minato stared in surprise at the sannin, now, on that particular point, he was a bit lost.

"Wh-What? But I told her everything!"

"I'm sure you also told her you removed the chakra blocking seal…but did you tell her you actually placed another one instead! Did you tell her that there are Anbu-class operatives patrolling the Konoha's border, with orders to intercept any letter going to Kumo or coming from them? Did you tell her that you're doing your absolute worst to make sure Naruto doesn't leave Konoha? Just what are you thinking, Minato!"

"Naruto belongs to Konoha. He belongs to Kushina, to Katsumi and he belongs to me too! And I will not have the Raikage, nor any Kumo ninja, take anything away from me! Never!" as Minato stood up, staring in fury at the sannin, Jiraiya spoke slowly.

"You're thinking they actually kidnapped Naruto on purpose, don't you?" Minato nodded.

"Like they tried with Kushina, like they tried with the Hyuga heiress, only with Naruto, they succeeded!"

"You're wrong," The Hermit spoke slowly, "I was there when I spoke with the Raikage, Minato, I was there, and trust me, he couldn't care less about the Kyuubi, he genuinely loves the boy, as do all the ninjas from Kumo I spoke with, the Hachibi's host swore not to rap again until he met Naruto back, the Nibi's one, last I saw her, was a living wreck, they told me some tales that made my few remaining hair turn white, boy, tales that Naruto told to them because he trusted them. You think you're going to make him trust you in a fortnight? Boy…you have to let him go."

"No." Minato replied harshly, his fist landing on the desk, "Never. Kushina would become a living wreck once more, and I refuse that!"

"Can't you see she's just acting selfish, like you are being right now: you won't get love through force!" Jiraiya exclaimed, his face a mixture of sadness and anger at just what his student was doing.

"So what? I should have left him there? Should have ignored Kushina's plead to get Naruto back? He's here now, Jiraiya, and the Raikage won't take him away for the next five years, so he will stay here until he's an adult, and by then he'll come to terms with us…"

"Your plan is bound to fail! Miserably too!" Jiraiya yelled back, "Why can't you realize you're just going to be hated and considered his jailor!"

"Then so be it!" Minato snapped, "I'll be his jailor and his judge and his executioner if I need to: but Kumo will never lay its paws on any of my children for as long as I will breath!"

"Minato…please, hear your words…you're not seeing reason." Jiraiya's tone turned pleading, as the Yellow flash of Konoha, Minato Namikaze, shook his head.

"No, I am seeing reason, Jiraiya, if Kumo gets Naruto back without a proper alliance, Konoha will be crushed. Five years are needed for the economical trades to become firm and establish themselves, so that it would turn counter-productive to wage war afterwards. Five years are needed for Konoha to strengthen itself, to prepare and to make sure our enemies do not try anything!"

"You're speaking just like Danzo, boy…you're still in time to change your ways, but if you insist on this road…" Jiraiya slowly moved back to the window, his gaze hardening to his ex-student, "Then know that I will stop you, you will not turn my godson into a mindless pawn to sacrifice when you want to! You can be the Hokage of Konoha, but you are not Kami, you cannot always be right, nor always have everyone obey you."

"Jiraiya…are you threatening me? Are you threatening the Hidden Leaf?"

The old man shook his head, before slowly replying to Minato.

"No, I'm threatening a real monster."

And with those final words, Jiraiya jumped out into the night, leaving Minato to throw around the papers on his desk, venting out his anger.

*Naruto's apartment*

True to her words, there actually was another bed in the spacious room now, this one too seemed scaly, as it seemed to be supported by fourth blackish pillars that in truth had eyes, and sometime even blinked.

"Aren't they uncomfortable like that?" Naruto queried, perplexed, as he slowly chewed a dango which had a slightly red bean taste.

"Nah, they're fine, they don't mind," as Anko replied that shrugging, she slowly removed her beige coat, hanging it onto another scaly clothes-stand, which actually *bit* onto the cloth, to keep it up.

"I'd have sore muscles to do that all day and night…" Naruto replied, as he slowly rubbed Shiro's head, the white snake was actually enjoying being cuddled, it was something new and that he had never had before, and he did like the boy's warmth.

"Snake's physiology is a bit different…they can stay months in the same position without problems. Ninja snakes even more," as Anko said that, she unhooked the fishnet shirt, but then turned around raising an eyebrow with a cocky smirk, "You little rascal, wanting to see naked me and not saying a word…what, swinging the other way?"

Naruto shrugged.

"My Oneechan has bigger ones," the boy's normal talking tone, without a hint of embarrassment made Anko's forehead have a slightly bulging vein on the side, "furthermore Kumo's hot springs have mixed bathing…if you're a ninja you can't be embarrassed by anything in a battle."

"Damn, you got me." Anko sighed, still turning around to get into more comfortable clothes, realizing that the boy wasn't actually paying attention to her at all, it wasn't just a cocky phrase to catch some *Anko-goodness*, the boy simply didn't care at all, he was busier petting Shiro.

However, a perverted chuckle caught her ear, but turning around, Naruto was actually tensed too. He hadn't been the one to chuckle, but he had clearly heard it too.

As Anko slowly turned around, ready to lower her skirt, the chuckle came again, as she turned, Kunai already in hand, she stared at Naruto dashing out of the windows, his weights left behind, together with a slithering and slightly pissed Shiro, and onto the wall on the opposite side of the road, he did have his Anbu mask on, however, as he had put it on a bit before entering the apartment.

"Did he just jump to the other side of the road?" Anko actually queried to no-one in particular, going to the window to watch the young blond boy actually hitting someone in the head.

"HENTAI!" Naruto yelled at the old man who was wearing strange red robes, with a *oil* forehead protector on the head, and who had wooden sandals on, but made no noise against the roof's tiles, as it moved backward, avoiding the boys hit.

"Damn your fast kid!" the old man said, as he, however, easily dodged all the boy was throwing at him in Taijutsu.

Naruto bit his tongue, he'd have used a Raiton by now, but if he destroyed a nearby roof, then he'd have to explain, they'd connect him to that apartment, and he'd have to move out before the five months of rent were over. Luckily he had kept enough of a cool head to get the mask on, so right now, there was a small Anbu fighting on a roof against a fifty years or older pervert.

"Calm down! Calm down! I've got a letter for you! It's from your father!" at those words, Naruto actually stopped, his fist inches away from the sage's right hand, who was there in a blocking position if the boy had kept pressing on the attack.

"Otou…san? He wrote to me?" as Jiraiya slowly nodded, Naruto's attitude changed, as he looked with vivid interest at the man rummaging through his bag, and taking out a small scroll, that he handed over to Naruto.

The boy slowly opened it, and, with the light of the moon, began reading.

_Hey Gaki,_

_Yeah, I know you're pissed for the situation as much as I am, but listen up, I asked the old man, the *fabled*, (it's sarcastic boy), Toad Sage, Jiraiya, to deliver you this letter, because I don't trust Konoha to actually deliver letters to you, (though I should probably warn Yugito-chan about it, before she kills me, well, I'm sure I'll remember it eventually, I'll have to tell B and C and Darui too, and all the others who might want to write to you) anyway, the damn fourth Hokage got me good with the alliance papers. My hands are tied, and I'm sure you don't want to start a war that would probably also kill some of your Kumo classmates, right? War are a bad business boy, let your father tell you that, it pains me, a lot, but I have to *rent* you to Konoha for five years. You're still a Kumo ninja though, and I actually hope Jiraiya later on gives you the gift for your birthday, which I'm sorry to say, I won't be able to participate in like the last years…I'm sorry Kid, really, but make me proud of you in the Chuunin exams, and since we're going to stay there for over a month, when the time comes, we'll catch up. What else? I probably don't think you'll be able to write back to me, because I frankly doubt they're going to let your letters through…but don't worry, stay strong, and *Bro-fist* the scroll, I did it beforehand, so it's your turn now._

_Bro-fist,_

_A._

_Ps: don't eat only ramen! It's seriously bad for your health! _

_PPS: if anyone tries anything funny, when I come around I'll lariat them to death, remember it!_

_Ppps: I better actually finish fast, as Jiraiya is probably edging to leave soon…sorry I can't write more. See ya in two years._

Naruto's eyes silently gave burst to silent tears, as he clutched the scroll tightly to him, staring at the Toad Sage, who handed him over a head protector, with the Kumo symbol on it.

"Well, your birthday should be the tenth of October, so…I'll give it to you now so I don't forget about it."

"Th…Thank you, Jiraiya-san...I'll forgive you for peaking on Anko-chan, only for tonight." Naruto meekly replied as he tied the Kumo headband to his right arm, tightly knotting it.

"Oh good, because I won't," with that, a female voice, from behind Jiraiya, spoke, and, as on one roof a toad sage ran away from snakes and kunais and a really furious looking Anko, somewhere else, in Kumo, the Raikage was mimicking the same scene, only with a really furious Nibi at his back.

"I FORGOT I SWEAR I FORGOT!" was the yell of despair of the Raikage.

**Author's notes**

**Another chapter rolls by**, **next one will probably be the last one before *canon* starts, to those who can't wait for canon: don't worry it will arrive.**

**Angeldoctor: Well, he could remove the seal and unleash the furry hellish Kyuubi, but then he'd be dead. That's something he knows wouldn't work as an intimidation, and if he raised that objection, it would only be another card into Minato's hand to better control him, (as it could force his hand to tighten the leash even more)**

**To E: meh, I kind of understand your point, as the majority of FemKyuubi stories are basically about a Kyuubi with big breasts in heat. In my case it's just a gender swap, nothing more. I kind of prefer a Naruto with a thousand and more year old female inside, than a man. It just sits better with my mind. I don't much have Naruto talk with the Kyuubi in *direct* chats, more like leaving subtle hints that she actually *is* talking to him in his mind. Sometimes, however, it happens. **

**Dbz: Hope I explained it even more clearly. They actually tried, (some chapters back) but still received no reply, and the ability to communicate with one another…apart I didn't know about it, but I doubt it works on such long distances.**

**To Dimestorenovel: well…this chapter actually answers that she knows *some things* but not all of them.**

**To Tamult: why are you thinking I'm going to be such an evil hearted writer? …well you're right, but that's beyond the point, and yeah, the fourth isn't *outright* evil, more like *necessarily* evil. Even Danzo taken in a different perspective is simply an ultranationalist who wishes for his country to be the first among all others, it's all a matter of perspectives. **

**To all: the pairings are yet to be decided, but until he at least hits the adolescence age I am not going to make any thought on the matter, (prudish? Maybe, but I'm not a lemon writer by nature). So whatever is written concerning whatever female Naruto comes across is just for the character's development, and not because I'm throwing him in a relationship. **

**Hope I answered all the questions around this time.**


	9. Tearing

Ninth chapter

Naruto had gone back to sleep, his mind already set on resting for the remainder of the night, but it was only a couple of hours later that he actually heard the light snoring of Anko, on the other side of the room, obviously he hadn't heard her come in, as she was a skilled ninja, but still, for some sort of reason, he felt safer knowing she was simply there, in the room.

That, and the fact that he could hear the hisses and the slow slither of various other snakes all around him, some even lightly snored too. He felt something crawl till his chest and then drifting off to sleep too, Naruto didn't need to open his eyes to know it was Shiro. Thankfully a snake could go months without eating, actually, as such, the Albino's first meeting with a live mouse, and not an insect or a worm from the caves, could wait till the next day. However, other thoughts were currently rummaging through his head, first of all the old man, Jiraiya-san, had offered him to deliver a letter back to Kumo, as he had a sort of *spy network* that needed some maintenance eventually, and he would either make the trip himself or hand it over to people he trusted. He would be there till tomorrow night, so he would have an entire day to think about it.

However, as Naruto's eyes slowly closed, his mind drifting to sleep once more, a sort of mind tug brought him to be waist-deep in the water that didn't wet him of the sewer system that wasn't a sewer system, behind the metallic bars stood those dark red eyes, as always looking furious and scary.

**Told you so.** The Kyuubi didn't need to say more, as Naruto's previous day had already told plenty to him, he had been too hasty in looking for friends, and it resulted in him calling Bro somebody who clearly was under the Hokage's orders. He wouldn't make the same mistake again. He revalued all those he knew near him. Teuchi-san and Ayame-chan were fine: clearly, they had helped him even before knowing who he was. Gai was an unknown yet, he was a bit strange, but it had been Naruto to go to him, not the other way around, and so, if he later on had started working for the Hokage, it was more the fault on Naruto's side than on Gai's, while Lee was clearly clean. He was too direct to hide something, or to not mention stuff.

Then Shino, Shino was still an academy student, sure, he was a bit strange, but he wasn't bad, at all, he was quiet and he actually didn't bother with stupid details or strange thoughts like the rest of his classmates, some outright fawned over the last of the Uchiha, kind like the geese who run around for bread and don't care to yell it out loud.

Finally, it was Anko's turn. Anko was strange, but she definitively shared some sort of past like him, Naruto recalled that tone, and her way of acting made it clear she was kind-hearted, at heart, and while she had truthfully barged in his apartment, it had been a too direct way for it to be planned ahead by the Hokage. It was the same reason he didn't think Lee was a menace, they were too direct.

The old *Toad Sage* as he had presented himself, well, he was an incognita, but he had that sort of directness that Naruto didn't too much mind about, and he did know his father, and he did deliver him his Otou-san's letter and gift. The truth was that the forehead protector wasn't the actual gift, he had felt it that deep underneath it, there was another one of those pocket knives, which now brought the count to two.

**Hey. I'm still here. **The Kyuubi spoke again, slowly.

"Yeah? Need something?" Naruto replied, tired and yawning.

**Aren't you angry he betrayed you? I told you that! You can only trust ME! **As the blood shot and furious eyes talked, Naruto shrugged.

"I'm too tired to feel anything but the need to sleep, and it was more my fault than his…he was just obeying orders."

**He betrayed you and you're fine with it! You should be angry, come on! **

"Listen," Naruto replied, his eyes already closing up, "I'm just tired…we'll talk tomorrow, maybe."

**You just…** but Naruto didn't care, he was so tired it wouldn't have mattered if they had started bombing Konoha, not that it wouldn't have been a sweet thing, but he simply was too tired to even think. He closed his eyes, even the inner ones of his consciousness, and finally drifted to sleep.

To be awoken abruptly the next morning by something biting on his neck.

"Ouch." He muttered, staring at the green snake that had just given him a little *nip*, and who then retracted back into Anko's sleeve of her beige coat.

"Rise and shine Naru-chan! Breakfast is ready!" as Naruto slowly got up he massaged the slightly bitten side of the neck with his left hand, as he half groggily moved to the side of the bed, slightly shaking on his legs as he realized that a dozen or more of snakes had deemed it appropriate to rest there while he was sleeping.

"Oh they all like you!" Anko said with a happy tone, as she pointed to the small table next to the small kitchen corner, where fair enough, there stood the breakfast. It was nothing grand, cooked rice and eggs, but still, it was breakfast.

That reminded him that he still had the same clothes as yesterday, and the day before.

"Thank you." Naruto whispered, as he moved towards the dining table, Anko chuckling.

"Wait till you know where the eggs come from…" Naruto had actually taken a bite, and was now standing there, frozen, in wait for Anko to finish her sentence, "from chickens, obviously." With a loud and audible sigh, Naruto kept eating.

Anko actually stared at the boy eating with a small grin, it was the first time she ever actually had anyone else eat her cooking, going as far as exclaiming the usual *Itadakimasu* and actually finishing the food making a heart-warming smile back. Yes, usually if she ever brought a man home, for a night of drunken something, no matter how drunk they were they'd recoil at the sight of the snakes, and, if it instead was the other guy's home, it would turn out nasty in the morning when, once somber, they'd recall just who she was. This little guy was actually the first one who didn't mind, and that actually made her think why she hadn't simply outright thought about it before.

"I should go buy some clothes…" Naruto whined, before shaking his head, "but..." staring sideways, "I never dyed my hair before."

Anko stared at the boy perplexed.

"Ohi, there's school today you know?"

"Got that covered," as Naruto replied that, he did a quick set of hand signs, and a Kage Bunshin, albeit groaning, dashed off to school.

"Nifty…I could avoid going to work too…hum, but still, why would you need to dye your hair?"

"I need clothes," Naruto pointed that out.

"Yeah, so?" Anko replied.

"I'll need to try clothes on, and I can't go with a henge on, as I can't lie about measurements, and furthermore it's chakra consuming and takes a toll on my concentration. So I have to use make-up to hide the whiskers marks," that earned himself an *aw* and a pout from Anko, she liked those whiskers marks! "And I also have to dye my hair to make it more difficult to recognize me. Kakashi-san did hand me over some silver dye… and so, I was thinking…maybe you know someone who could help?" as he queried that, not actually expecting Anko to offer herself for the task…he was surprised when her grin turned fiercer, as she started to slowly emit a dark evil aura around herself, as her eyes turned into dark red slits, she muttered.

"So someone thinks they can kick my Naru-chan out of their stores huh? That someone is going to pay kekeke."

"Anko-chan?" since when did he become hers? Was it something in Konoha's water that made all female think he was theirs?

"You're coming to buy clothes with me. Right now, and without camouflaging yourself! Let's go!" With that, she actually grabbed him by the arm, and started pushing towards the window, Naruto raised his other free arm just in time for Shiro to jump inside his sleeve and wrap itself around his arm, before the Kunoichi and the young boy dashed outside.

Naruto, while following Anko who just knew a nice clothes shop, sent another clone to warn Gai-sensei and Lee-kun that he wouldn't come in the morning, as he was busy *rekindling his flame of youth, by buying some stuff he needed*.

It wasn't the end, however. He slowly, but surely, created clones one after the other, scattering them into the key main roads of Konoha, on the alert. Each of them would disperse in the specific moment it would sight one his main hassles, warning him of their location, and effectively generating a sort of sonar-like mind-wave pattern that only he could follow. It was to be said, while he truly hated the Hokage till the tip of his spine, the jutsu was incredibly useful. It was scouting, extra hands in combat and help in deceiving the enemy and also worked to confound the civilian mob, who didn't know which of the clones were real, and thus grew wary by the minute that the demon host had indeed learnt how to multiply himself.

Anko had actually chuckled at the explanation Naruto had given her, the fact he was the only one who could use it to such a vast scale, however, made it something that Anko didn't wish to learn.

The clothes shop was neat, and in a back alley, slightly out of hand, and that was maybe the reason the owner of the shop didn't mind who his customers were.

As they entered the badly lit shop, Naruto's gaze spotted…something orange. His eyes kindled just slightly on it, before the recollection of Yugito's words on *what sane of mind ninja wears orange! Come on!* dashed into his head, making him turn on the more *broody* and dark colors available. He opted for a simple set of blackish, brownish or dark green clothes and pants, it didn't matter much to him how sore in the eyes they would be, all it mattered was that they were practical, and warm.

Anko said nothing, she was the one with a beige coat, a fishnet shirt, and the flak jacket after all so who was she to suggest fashion? The old man, the owner of the shop said nothing, but simply cashed in the goods in silence, that too was a first. Unknown to Naruto, Anko had actually kindly mentioned just how many snakes she had in her right sleeve, of her right arm that was just so casually on the counter, pointed at the man, who didn't have a death wish that particular day.

With a carton bag that held his purchase, Naruto dashed back to the apartment, as Anko waved him goodbye to head off to her work in the interrogation department, not before warning him that there might be an increase in the need of a certain neurotoxin in the following days, as there were some tougher to crack persons, and nice manners wouldn't be cutting it any longer.

As Naruto dashed from rooftop to rooftop, a clone dispersed, warning him that Jiraiya-san wanted to talk to him, and that it was just so casually near the village hot bathes. He sighed, whistling a tune he had decided would alert the closest of his shadow clones, which actually jumped right next to him, grabbing the clothes and making a pout.

"What? No orange? Why no orange boss? We love orange!"

"Yugito's word came to my mind." Naruto replied to his clone, who nodded, his eyes narrowing slightly, before shaking the sad feeling away, was that how he looked like when thinking about Yugito-oneechan?

"Got it boss, delivering them to the apartment and dispersing afterward." With that, Clone-Naruto dashed off, leaving the real one to take a detour, to reach Jiraiya.

When Naruto landed on the bathes' rooftop, he scratched his head, staring at the old guy peaking at the women in the bath.

He simply sat where he was, staring at the man for a moment, before coughing just once.

As the man didn't turn around, Naruto sighed, and crossing his arms behind his head, making sure Shiro was going to be fine, he slowly drifted to a comfortable nap. Jiraiya actually turned around to stare at the boy, obviously he had felt him arrive, but he kind of wondered why he wasn't stopping him from peaking, it was like it didn't matter to him, well, he'd prove him wrong! He wasn't a pervert, but a super pervert! Still, he wasn't going to use his catchphrase on him, like it instead always worked with Katsumi. He was…different.

So, the toad sage actually turned around, moving closer to the boy, and as he did, Naruto stood up smiling at the man.

"I'm still thinking about what to write back home," Naruto muttered as Jiraiya nodded, well, he knew the boy thought of Kumo his home, so that much was expected, "but I must thank you for delivering Otou-san's letter…it meant a lot to me, like the gift." As he politely bowed his head, his Kumo headband tightly knotted to his right arm, Jiraiya was on the verge of tears, such a polite little thing! So much different from both Kushina's rash actions and Minato's, such composure! This just helped acerbate his anger towards the two idiots, he'd give them a piece of his mind later on, however, as right then he had other things to do.

"Listen boy…I'll be blunt with you, okay?" as the toad sage said that, Naruto nodded.

"I'm your godfather, as I'm Katsumi's and I'm your godfather because Minato was my student," The scowl on the blond boy's face was visible, at the mention of Minato's name, but Jiraiya kept pressing the matter, "But I do not approve of his methods, and of the turn he's taken, I'm sorry, on his behalf, for what he did."

Naruto's face was a mixture of emotions, on one side, there was something yelling at him not to believe the sage, he was strongly connected to the Hokage, he was actually the teacher of the Hokage, he certainly could have prevented all this from happening if he had been a good teacher of the Hokage. On the other hand, another voice was telling him that, except for being a strange pervert, he did offer to act like a messenger for Kumo, and he did deliver his Otou-san's letter to him, so he might have been trustworthy.

"If it can help, I'm planning on giving two pieces of my mind to Kushina too, when I get my claws on her," as Jiraiya said that, Naruto shrugged.

"I don't care…did you write the book, the tale of a gutsy ninja?" as Naruto queried that, the old man actually nodded with a smile.

"Yeah, one of my finest pieces of art, I wrote it a long time ago…did you read it?"

"Yes but…there's something I didn't understand," as Naruto began asking questions, more on some grammatical problems he had incurred, to which the Sannin actually replied in earnest, in the end the boy asked the final question, "why did you start writing porn books?"

"Well…ehm…" the sage coughed at that, scratching the back of his head, before saying, "porn is a steady income, while I consider my first book a masterpiece, few people actually read it and appreciated it…so I turned to porn, and boy was I surprised by the royalties I got for those...so I simply kept it up."

"I see…do you plan on making the Tale have a sequel?"

"Why would I? It's finished and complete as it is," at that, Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"But the protagonist doesn't find a solution for the cycle of conflicts to end."

"That's because it's really difficult to find it, and I too did not know the answer to that question at the moment I finished writing it."

"So you know it now?" Naruto was curious, but as the sage laughed, shaking his head, it turned in perplexity, and an adorable pout of light anger.

"No, the answer is personal to everyone boy, you just need to find your own."

"But then…what's yours?" to that, Jiraiya replied with a chuckle.

"To peep to my heart contents!"

"Good to know that…" as the voice came from the female that had been soaking in the water till then, some of even Anbu Class, the sage's face turned slightly pale, as he suddenly dashed away, being followed by the Kunoichi's armed with their weapons, but only draped in their bath towels.

Naruto sighed, shaking his head before jumping down from the roof and walking silently through the city. He didn't actually want to train with Gai and Lee right then, and after all, he had told them he wouldn't be there for the morning…so what was he going to do? Another of his clone dispersed, revealing to him that the hassle was moving out towards his old apartment. Did no one warn her he had changed it? Better that way. Another one dispersed, she had just met with Kakashi-san? The third one dispersed after having received a message from Kakashi, who had managed to catch the clone and warn him that they were coming to his apartment, to check on him.

The real Naruto sighed, and dashed off. His hassles were ever growing now.

He didn't know what was worst: the fact he *couldn't* keep on avoiding them, or that they seemed to insist on making their presence known into his life. Was peace such a difficult thing to achieve?

**Mortals never achieve peace.**

_Oh, I was missing you, you know?_

**You flatterer: it's the truth. You're mortal. You hoard gold, riches, food, to survive. When you don't have enough, you seek more. Some seek even more, in their greed. To seek more, more easily, some seek power to harm others and steal from them. Then they need even more power to protect from others who had the same thought. Until, in the end, they forget the true reason they were harnessing power, until death tolls at their door, and then they realize that no matter how much power they sought, it's worthless in the face of the shinigami.**

_You really have a fatalistic vision of humanity._

**Listen brat, I don't know if you're feeling happy and relieved that your *Kumo family* still cares about you, but in two years, a lot of things can change, they might outright hate you by then, you know? So why don't you just take a nice dose of realism, and shove it down your recently born optimistic streak?**

…_You're no fun to talk to._

**I'm the Kyuubi, the nine tails, strongest of the tailed beasts, imprisoned for life into the body of a what, a soon to be eleven years old? Oh but I'm going to see how much fun it's going to be, this week, when you turn eleven, oh yeah! **

_I'm not going to leave the apartment, no matter what._

As the Kyuubi chuckled, Naruto finally reached his apartment, and realizing he had actually arrived first, he sat down on the couch, which stretched slightly a bit, but recognizing his smell, did nothing but purr happily, as Shiro slithered out of his arm and onto his lap, staring at him with his bright red eyes.

On the table stood the clothes he had bought that morning, they had all actually been folded neatly, but left there since he didn't have a drawer to put them in, yet.

"Furniture…huh." As Naruto muttered that, the couch actually opened his mouth.

"What? No, you've got to be kidding me." The next moment, a dresser emerged from the *couch* mouth, it was a bit covered in saliva, but it was there, with etching marking it as *Private Anko's property*.

Naruto was actually in awe, but he would have felt bad at using one of Anko's drawers, so he simply eyed at the couch, which actually made a sort of hissed chuckle, before pointing at the lower one with its small tail, that he opened to reveal it was empty.

"You say I can use that, Couch-san?" as Naruto queried, and the couch actually nodded with his golden hue eyes, Naruto obeyed, who was he to go against the furniture's will?

Afterwards he stared in awe as the couch actually *ate* the dresser back, stretching his mouth out to a level that made Naruto touch his own jaw, thinking if he ever would manage to replicate such a feat.

Shiro was actually in the same line of thought, as he too was mimicking the couch, trying to open his own jaw wide, but not obtaining much of a result, except *aw* of cuteness from Naruto, who was seeing that scrawny little white thing *yawning*.

He decided to sit while staring at the couch's eyes, and, carefully, he started scratching the snake's head, or probable head, who hissed happily.

"Well…this is strange," the voice shook the boy off his mindless thoughts as he stared at Kakashi first, and then at the red-haired woman as they entered from the window.

"I thought it would take more time to move the furniture in…but…did that couch just hiss at me?" as Kakashi queried that, Kushina actually was refraining from jumping at the boy and saving him from being eaten by half the snakes in the room. The boy did seem unfazed, even though some were outright staring at the two who had just entered. Kakashi had re-dyed his hair silver, while Kushina had just so nervously began touching the tip of one of her kunais, just to be on the safe side.

"It's Couch-san…I think," as the couch actually hissed his approval of the name, Naruto mentally noted that it wasn't probably originality Anko's forte at naming people…or snakes, "right I was, he's Couch-san, this here is Shiro," pointing at the albino snake on his lap, "and those are…well, I'm sure they all have names, even those in the storeroom, but I don't know them yet."

"I…I see, well, is your roommate a nice fellow?" as Kushina queried that, she actually *didn't* want to think anyone, except Orochimaru himself, would have such a passion for snakes.

"She is nice, Uzumaki-sama," Naruto replied with an overly serious tone, while nodding, "I'd offer you two tea, but I'm afraid I don't have tea, which reminds me I should actually go and buy groceries, right? What do you guys eat actually?" as Naruto queried the snakes, the majority stared at each other for a second, "Except each other! I won't have cannibalism in the room!" the snakes hissed their fake disappointment: obviously they wouldn't eat each other out! They'd eat *other* snakes out!

"Well…yeah, I'm sure she…wait, she?" Kushina's maternal instincts about her *boy* being sharing a room with a female Kunoichi made her tick. Nervously, "She? She who? Who's the woman, the wretched sinful family-breaker woman that…"

"Kushina-san, retract that before the room tries to eat you." Kakashi carefully pointed that out, as all the snakes, even Couch-san, were now staring with a highly murderous glare at the red-head, and even Naruto wasn't actually far from having his eyes turn red and dash at the woman. The only reason he hadn't was because he doubted Shiro would handle his sudden dashing at the red-haired ninja, and because probably Kakashi would intercept him beforehand.

"Her name is Anko, and she's nicer than any of the Konoha shinobi I have met till now! Well, except for Gai and Lee…but they don't count as *normal*!"

Two green clad ninjas suddenly sneezed out hard, before redoubling their effort, as they erroneously thought it was Kami's sign that somebody was wishing them to be even more youthful.

Kushina was a bit sad not to be accounted into it, but the sadder of the two was Kakashi, it actually stung to know that the boy wasn't counting him among the nicest ones…well, he did say he was working with the Hokage so not being trusted again for a while was to be expected...he didn't like it, however.

"So, your clone is at school, and you skipped Taijutsu practice with Gai-sensei?" Naruto nodded at Kakashi's question.

"I thought I still had to buy clothes, you know," pointing at Couch-san, "he's got them all now, safe and sound. Furthermore I actually do need to buy something that isn't powdered ramen. Might as well try Anko's method on the stall vendors."

"Anko's method?" Kushina queried, worriedly, she knew Anko had been Orochimaru's student, so just what was that horrid purple-haired wrench teaching *her* son!

"Intimidate them," Naruto replied, with a shrug, "if it's the only thing Konoha's civilian can understand through their thick skulls, then, as a Ninja of Kumo it's my duty to remind them that I'm not to be trifled with." As he finished saying those words, Kakashi actually was mentally asking himself where the boy was getting that confidence boost…until he saw the headband on his right arm.

"Isn't that…" as he pointed that out, and even Kushina saw it, Naruto had already his left hand on it, and was standing up in a defensive position.

"Yes, it's my Otou-san's gift for my birthday: Jiraiya-san gave me a letter from him and this. I will not have it trashed again..." his tone was actually a slight snarl, as his eyes were slowly assuming a reddish hue.

"Calm down Naruto, it is fine, you can keep it," Kakashi assured the boy, as Kushina, on the other hand, was losing the little self-control she was still clenching on to, the Kumo bastards stole her son's soul! That had to be the reason, it had to be that...why wasn't the boy understanding that his only father was Minato, albeit he wasn't a really good one, he was still his father, and that SHE was his mother, and no-one from Kumo could ever replace her!

"No he cannot. He's got academy and…" as Kushina was about to keep speaking, his clone at the academy actually chose that moment to dispel, as Naruto's gaze slowly darkened.

"And I've got some bastards to gut on a roof…Kakashi-san, we made a promise right? So you don't mind if I direct my hate to a bastard who is outright holding one of my friends as hostage on the roof with bug-spray, right?" Kakashi would have wanted to actually say something, but he couldn't, he couldn't because Naruto had simply discarded his weights and had dashed out of the window with such a speed that he, not having his sharingan on, hadn't been accustomed to. What was worst was that the boy had intentionally taken the blind spot that having his sharingan covered would mean, just so he could have an easier time dashing off.

The Couch eyed at the duo with a really angry stare, the killing blood thirst he had felt before from the boy was already unnerving him, as slowly a couple of rattlesnakes began rattling their tails.

"Let's follow him!" as Kushina and then Kakashi dashed behind the blond bullet, the only thing Kakashi actually thought was that he had to be fast, as if he had understood anything from Naruto's thought pattern, somebody had done one of the things that Naruto absolutely loathed: he had dared to attack one of the people he cared for, and if he hated the Hokage for having wounded his Oneechan, to what level would he go if somebody was outright menacing one of his friends? The words about bug-spray however caught up with him, it had to be an Aburame, who had bugs all over their body.

"Kushina-san," Kakashi said to the Jounin, who, being a sensei should have actually been in school, "I'm sure he won't start a bloodbath at school."

"I don't care about that! It's the council I'm afraid of."

Kakashi's eye bulged in surprise, as he revealed his sharingan, he had a hunch he'd need it for the coming hours, why would she…

"Kushina-san, why the council?" Kakashi made his question vocal.

"If…if he snaps out in school and kills them, I'm sure Katsumi is going to be fine, Naruto wouldn't harm her," oh, she was just being delusional, Kakashi decided on that moment he was basically the only one who could stop Naruto, if he started a murder spree, "but the children's parents might be angry at him, when he's just a poor scared boy who doesn't know in what to believe," she was being far worse than delusional, it was like she was refuting reality, "and he risk being sent to Danzo to be trained as an emotionless weapon! I will not lose my son again! Never!" and with those words, that the woman herself hadn't realized she had said, she sped up.

Kakashi stood surprised…did she just say…

He's sensei's son! That's why Minato had gone to such lengths, and why Kushina too was, Katsumi wasn't his cousin, but his twin! And yet…now he understood the boys feeling. He had already been discarded once, trained into Root and all, now he had been kidnapped, but instead of being inserted in the family, he had been discarded once more, and he had been unable to leave! That was just…cruel.

Why go to all that length without revealing who Naruto really was? Why make him suffer the beatings from the crowd and the hateful gaze from the mob? No wonder he cared for Kumo more than Konoha, Konoha was refuting his very existence not once, but twice in a row! In Kumo the Raikage called him a son, and here he was just called a tool, a weapon, an extra. He was barely hanging to his sanity, and all he needed was peace. He was just about to snap, and if he did…his anger would be towards Konoha, as a whole.

*Ninja Academy*

Shino was standing, his hands raised, on the roof, Kiba and his group of thugs had decided to aim at him, and, after the Naruto-clone had arrived to make them stop, somebody had hit the clone on the back to make him disappear: Sasuke Uchiha.

The two actually had something in common: their hate for the boy. One because he thought Naruto's look was of fake superiority, the other because he was being challenged for his post. Nobody usually came to the roof, as it was off-limits, and being this an academy of ninja, one of the thugs, students from other classrooms who followed Kiba as their alpha, had picked the lock and they had brought Shino up there, keeping him under the constant menace of bug-spray. It was funny how the young Aburame had obeyed them in silence, as bugs were his only friends, except that idiot Kumo-lover.

"I say we could spray him just to be sure, you know." As one of the thugs spoke, a white-eyed Hyuga girl had slowly climbed onto the roof, she knew it was her fault, after all.

She had been the one who had been kidnapped by the Kumo ninjas years before, and Kiba had some sort of protective streak over her, and as such, when Naruto had waltzed in proclaiming he preferred Kumo, Kiba had hated him, when he had come with the headband of Kumo in the classroom, it had just made things worst.

She didn't have it against Naruto, she really didn't think anything about the boy, but she knew this was wrong, and if only she could voice her words, then everything would be fine. But she couldn't, she outright couldn't say anything to make them stop, her voice simply didn't come up in the most important moments, and now there she was, staring at the scene, having carefully tiptoed up on the roof.

"Ohi, Hinata-chan!" Kiba had grinned at her, arriving up there, "Once the Kumo guy comes here we'll give him a good lesson, and he'll learn not to try anything funny on our turf!"

"Pl…Pl…"_please Kiba-kun, stop! Shino-kun is innocent! I don't want you to fight Naruto-san either! _

"Huh? Pl…pleasurable thing to happen? Good to know you're with us then…" it was a flash, Kiba had barely finished his sentence, that a dark grey and dark violet anbu masked ninja had punched him with the strength of a brick wall on the left side of his face, sending him to fly across the roof's floor, while the two who were menacing Shino yelled in pain, as their wrists cracked under the sheer strength of two other similarly dressed ninjas, whose look of fury was making them wet themselves already. Those were the eyes of a killer.

"Shino…you fine?" one of them spoke slowly, as the punch he sent into the thug, made the clearly bulkier boy bend in half, his mouth open as saliva dripped out, pain taking over, as another hit send the thug, and half of his teeth, flying across the roof's surface.

"Now I am." Shino replied, getting up, bugs appearing from his sleeves, as he went on to help his friend in a bit of good to go revenge.

Hinata stared, pale as only she could become, at the carnage. It was a bloody carnage, a one-sided slaughter. Sasuke was next to her, staring in shivers, shivers of fright, not of anticipation of the fight, it was like that day, that fateful day he had lost all of his family to his brother, Itachi, the difference in strength, in speed, in technique, it was all there, he felt weak, he felt the distance enormous. It wasn't Shino's strength with his bug, no, it was Naruto's technique, it was highly brutal, it broke legs and arms, sickening crunches and yells of pain and despair was all the other side was able to do, as the man, he couldn't be a boy, he had to be a man, wasn't getting hit even once.

Kiba had slowly gotten back on his feet, only to be punched down once more, as Akamaru, his pet dog, barked for having been taken by the neck, and raised by the ninja, the masked ninja who clearly was Naruto, to the side of the building.

"From roof to ground there are five windows." One of the ninjas, who, in particular, had been in the process of beating a thug mercilessly on the face, spoke slowly.

"Which means on a basic of six meters per window…which would be a floor…" another one spoke.

"How many meters can a dog pup survive I wonder?" the third queried, as he let Akamaru fall down.

Even Shino stopped to stare at that. It was cruel, even for his standards.

"Akamaru? AKAMARU! NOOO!" Kiba felt a kick hit him in the stomach, and then stay there, keeping him down.

"HOW DOES IT FEEL!" the masked ninja yelled.

"How does it feel to be powerless, to be weak, to see those you cherish and love been taken away from you!"

"You Kumo bast…" a punch to the side of Kiba's face made the boy silent, as tears started falling down the Inuzuka's face.

"Answer the question. Do you feel the sorrow, the pain? You would have subjected Shino to that, you know? Why would you have done this to Shino, huh! Was he less worthy than you to have a chance at happiness! ANSWER ME!" Kiba was grabbed by the jacket, and flung to the middle of the rooftop.

"You are a worthless, pathetical, weak boy, who thinks the world revolves around yourself. Now is the time you learn the lesson of life!" As Naruto's right hand started to crackle with electricity, he slowly got closer to the Inuzuka, who was scared senseless...

"I'm…I'm sorry…" Kiba whispered, closing his eyes.

"Naruto…it's enough." Shino replied as his bugs had just finished sucking up the chakra from a couple of thugs, letting them down tired on the floor, "you already took away what he loved the most...the rest is cruelty."

Naruto sighed, as his right hand stopped crackling with electricity.

"I'm too good hearted for my own benefit…Gamma! Bring up the puppy!" with those words, a clone moved up from just the side where Akamaru had been thrown, with the obviously white pup in his hands, albeit he had been put to bite on a stick, to avoid him biting and dispersing the clone.

"Boss, why does the shit job always happen to me?" Gamma whined, as he dropped the puppy on the roof's floor, and the dog took the chance to dash off back to Kiba's side.

"Y…You didn't kill him…" Kiba muttered, perplexed.

"My Oneechan wouldn't have forgiven me…she just likes cute things like that," Naruto shrugged, before his tone turned darker, as the other clones dispersed, "however I warn you only this once: try this stunt again, and I swear, I swear I will find and destroy everything you love and cherish and then I'll come for you at last. Did I make myself clear?" as Kiba nodded, vigorously, Naruto's face turned more serene, as he sighed.

"Damn, I'll have to buy the groceries in the afternoon: I'm nearly out of chakra."

"My father has an orchard," Shino suggested, "I'm sure he'd make you a favorable price."

"Really? Thank you Shino, you're a friend!" with that, the two silently strolled by the Uchiha and the Hyuga girl, who had both stood frozen in fear, Naruto stopped only for a second, without turning back, however, and muttered.

"Girl, I don't know you and I don't care, but you, Uchiha Bastard…I saw you in my clone's memory…try it again, and I will have no mercy for you," and with those words, Naruto slowly descended back to the classroom.

Kakashi and Kushina arrived on the roof five minutes later, where they found an utterly pale and shivering Hyuga, an utterly paralyzed in shock Uchiha, fainted or beaten to unconsciousness thugs, but no deaths, nor sign of Raiton's uses. They would have arrived sooner, but clones after clones had prevented them from getting near, simply forming massive body-walls that they had to dash through strength alone…a feat.

"What happened here? Hinata-chan, right? Come on, what happened here?" As Kushina queried the Hyuga, she simply muttered.

"A…A demon came by to save Shino-kun…" she then decided her very next best course of action would be to faint outright where she stood.

"Kiba-kun? Can you stand?" Kushina turned the gaze to the Inuzuka, who silently got on his feet, and kept his gaze low…

"I think I made Naruto-sama snap."

…

"What?" Kakashi queried…did the Inuzuka just use the *sama* in that?

"What can I say! He literally threw me all over the place like I was a frigging floor's mop! And he…he's strong you know, not faking it, really strong. I'm not challenging him to alpha until I get some harsh training under the belt, no sir, for Kami's sake no." with that Kiba slowly moved downstairs, hugging himself for comfort, and because it meant he was hugging Akamaru too, and also because he did feel a bit sore on his ribs and on the side of his mouth.

"I think that Sasuke-kun fainted from standing position," Kushina said, as the boy didn't at all seem fazed when the woman tried to move a hand in front of his eyes.

"I should have a talk with Naruto, while I admit some are not his handiwork…those are bug bites in there, I'm sure those beaten to a near pulp, no matter the circumstances, could have been *laid off* more easily."

As Kakashi pointed that out, he slowly, but surely, placed his sharingan back down, in the end he hadn't needed it, luckily. He re-promised himself however to be quicker next time, the brat was unnaturally cunning, and seemed prone to use any weakness he could find out…

Meanwhile, a couple of floors below, Katsumi was pouting as both Ino and Sakura had started querying her repeatedly on who her cousin was, why they had never heard about him, and if they could convince him to go out…with the OTHER of the two.

"I say, he'd be the best pick for you, Ino-pig." Sakura muttered, her eyes darting a murderous atmosphere, towards the long blond haired girl.

"Why, Sakura-forehead, I think he'd be better for you." As Ino replied that, staring at the pink-haired girl, a voice interrupted them from their back.

"Out of the way." As the two turned, ready to send a fist into the face of their annoying interrupter, their fists were blocked, and they actually stared in fright at Naruto's dark scowl on his face.

His grip was strong, so much that the two actually started whimpering.

"Naruto-kun! You're hurting them!" Katsumi-chan muttered.

"Naruto," Shino muttered from the boy's back, "Calm down."

Naruto sighed, letting go of the two girl's fists, before eying them both badly.

"You two…next time you try that, I'll first break your hand and then I'll stop, did I make myself clear!"

The two girls nodded silently, as Katsumi, on the other hand, spoke up.

"Naruto-kun! You can't be mean to girls it's…"

"Katsumi-chan!" Naruto replied with an overly smiling face, as he clenched his hands together, assuming the tone a man would use with a little kid, "you know something funny? They chose the ninja academy! That means they're going to become ninjas! So, when they'll whine that they're girls to the enemy, do you think the enemy is going to invite them over for tea and a date, or is it going to laugh as it tears them apart with kunais and explosive notes!" The boy's gaze was harder, now, as he furiously got to his spot, and sat down, trying to quench the need to turn the classroom's walls of a nice red color.

The three girls stood a bit shocked, as they all silently got to their seats, Shino simply stood there a moment more, to whisper:

"He's going through a bad period right now…" before reaching for his seat next to the window.

Slowly, the classroom filled up, except for Hinata Hyuga and Sasuke Uchiha, who both were in the infirmary, and a limping Kiba, who entered the room looking dejected and getting to his spot in utter silence, so much stricken down that not even Iruka had the will to call on the boy.

In the following days, the news of Naruto's strength echoed through the school, and while it obviously didn't help the boy with the civilian side, it at least made things easier at school, as Kiba actually apologized, accepting the fact that he had been childish, and Naruto…well, he had forgiven him, since Shino had done so too, but still, the Tenth of October drew nearer, and with that, Naruto's jumpiness became even more pronounced. The Hokage had remained silent on the matter, and neither Kushina, nor Kakashi, had shown themselves again for a while…which was fine to him, he still had Shino, Anko-chan and both Gai and Lee…and the Toad Sage. Albeit he hoped he'd actually deliver the letter he had written with much care back to his father…without reading it.

*Tenth of October*

"Not going out today," Naruto muttered, slowly gazing at the snake which was now in an awkward position. Now, imagine you live your life as the snake that pops out of Anko's sleeve, you've got an easy workload: she calls you, and you pop out to bite someone. However, sometimes, you have to value your own safety, and when a boy whose gaze could pretty much equate to you turning to cinders, that is sparkling with electricity, and that has a whole lot of snakes around him hissing their approval to the boy's words, then you've got to do what every other snake who pops out from Anko's sleeve do: you go back into Anko's sleeve hissing how sorry you are about all the deal.

"Naru-chan, what's the matter today? Feeling a bit under the weather? Speak to Anko-chan and she'll nurse you back to health in a second!" Anko actually chuckled that, but the boy's stare was simply a moping one.

"You know, moping won't solve things," she added, trying to sound encouraging, "You need to tackle the problem head on!"

"What if the problem is my birth day?" Naruto replied, as he cringed once more, pulling the bed sheet over his face, as the snakes hissed their displeasure at being in the dark.

"Wait…today is your birthday! Why didn't you tell your cute Anko-chan! I'd have bought you a…"

"No, it's not that the problem," Naruto swiftly added, "Really, I don't need anything, nor do I want anything."

"Good, because I'm a bit low on cash right now." Naruto chuckled at that…the woman always did seem to put a smile on his face.

"So, what's the problem?" As Anko didn't seem intentioned to leave him alone on the matter, the boy sighed.

"The day I was born and Konoha don't go hand in hand, you know why, right?" he queried, maybe she actually didn't know, and that was why she had been nice to him, instead of running away like everyone else, or hitting him, or menacing him.

"No, why would that be? Do they hate the tenth of October? Is there something particular going on, except Naru-chan's birthday?" as Anko chuckled on that, she stared with a saddened gaze at the sheets of the bed, which were slightly trembling. It was obvious she knew what was going on, but she was trying her hardest to make sure the boy wouldn't keep up the blaming attitude he had, it wasn't his fault the villagers were a bunch of pathetical ignorant idiots, and if he kept shivering like that, on his birthday, never going out, it might have been a problem.

"You know…it's not the villagers…not only them," Naruto whispered back, barely audible, "It's…how would you feel, if you had been randomly chosen among others, to be the bringer of a horrible thing? I mean, there was bound to be at the very least another newborn baby, when the Kyuubi was sealed in me, right?"

Anko's gaze turned softer, as she took a chair to sit down, this was going to be long, she thought to herself.

"I suppose so Naru-chan, but then, why not you? You were an orphan too, right?" Naruto slowly moved his bed sheet's away from his face, as he stared at Anko with a saddened gaze.

"No. I wasn't." He whispered, "I had a *twin* born on the same day as me, but I was chosen. My father didn't choose me for some high and noble reason, no, he choose me so that the other one could live a nice, happy life, and then, I was abandoned to my fate, I was discarded, as I had served my purpose." Anko's heart pained, it did, because she had felt the same for years after what her former *sensei* had done to her, she knew the feeling, she knew it fully well.

"Your father…the Hokage surely asked him to make a great sacrifice for you, right? Are you sure you don't want to see him again, I mean, you don't know, when he's changed his…" Anko's words died in her mouth, as even the snakes coiling around Naruto had been staring at her, but more than at her at her words, like they were the source of all the hatred in the world.

"Naru-chan…who *is* your father?" Naruto turned his gaze at the window, and chuckled…a sad chuckle, filled with grief.

"Why don't you look at the fourth head on the mountain?" He whispered back, and as Anko's eye bulged in shock and surprise, she shivered, now…now that was something else.

"Why did you tell me this? I'm sure it's going to be a juicy gossip to talk to…and I'm sure you were asked to keep it a secret." As Anko queried that, Naruto stared at her, with a small adorable smile that made the purple-haired kunoichi simply wish the snakes weren't still angry at her, she was their mistress! Yet they had all been conquered over by Naruto. Damn those betrayers! It just wasn't fair.

"I just trust you." It was four words, four simple words, it was the four words that actually cracked Anko's otherwise perfectly impenetrable armor of *Anko-ness*, the same words that she had once told to her *former* sensei, and for which she had then been in for a good surprise. Yet the boy trusted her with a secret, a really important one too, because he believed in her, now she felt bad for even suggesting gossiping around. The boy would probably get the punishment for having talked, she was sure it wouldn't be death, but it would still be something bad. She wouldn't talk, no matter what, the boy's secret was safe within her…and he was just so adorable when his clear blue eyes were fixed on her with a slight glimmer of hope that somebody was going to understand him.

"Fine then, you and your puppy-eyes! You can stay in the room for today only, no school. However you've got to get up to eat breakfast, got it?" as Anko said that, standing back up from the chair, that obviously slithered back into its basic components of snakes, Naruto nodded, slowly getting up as the snakes that had bonded with him moved around, letting him move.

The only one who stayed on the boy's shoulder was Shiro, the albino snake. He hadn't grown much, but he had gotten his first taste at something different than an insect: a small pigeon that Naruto had caught on the rooftop. For some reasons, everyone was fine with having snakes eat pigeons, but not with having snakes eat cute fluffy rabbits or mice: it was racism!

"Still, not even sending a clone out for school?" Naruto shook his head, as he attacked the cooked rice with glee, it was strange, but he didn't even whine at all that his breakfast was always the same...probably too good of a kid to say anything, Anko was going to get a cooking recipe book, to at least bring some variety in her meals.

"It's not like you can't defend yourself, you know?" Naruto shook his head once more, as he kept on chewing with a speed that made even Anko surprised.

"So…you're not doing this because of you, right?"

"There's Shino, who probably would get caught in the crossfire at school. There's Teuchi-san and Ayame-chan, and I can defend myself, but against a mob? I'd need Raitons, and electricity sparks and goes where she pleases…I might harm someone innocent...I don't like Konoha…but I did promise Kakashi-san I wouldn't turn my hate to innocents."

"Aw…you're a softie too!" Anko ruffled the boy's head with a small smile, she didn't actually want to go to work that day, she'd rather stay home too, read a book, get some more sleep, cuddle the little boy, but she had work to do, and thus she had to go.

"Well, I'll be back tonight, so make sure everything's fine and don't burn up the house while I'm gone." Naruto silently nodded, making a small smile.

"I'll guard the house with my life."

Strange how those words would haunt Anko in the following years.

*Tenth of October-Night*

The nerve of the boy had made the Uchiha angry. He hadn't shown himself to school that day, so Katsumi-chan had been forced to query her mother where the boy was, she still wanted to invite him over to her birthday party and late sleepover, and Kushina had relented, in the end, telling them where the boy lived.

Katsumi actually had wanted to walk over directly, but her father had called for her, and so she had given the work to Sasuke, who obviously not feeling appalled by being a messenger, had no intention whatsoever to do the job. He stared from the roof he was in at the window, open, of the apartment the boy was in. He could throw a rock inside, to get the boy's attention, but then he'd have to yell to be heard, and he didn't want that.

He gave just a couple of looks down below, where the people were all having fun, happily singing songs about the defeat of the Kyuubi, Sasuke too recalled the festivity with a slight glint of happiness, after all, his mother used to bring him to the festival some times. He looked at the apartment's window, to see the silver-haired Jounin, Kakashi, exit it after waving goodbye to its occupant, had to be Naruto obviously. Obviously he even received Jounin-training at home, the nerve of the boy!

He was the last of the Uchiha, he was meant for greatness, he knew it! So, that was the reason he slowly, but surely, began walking up the wall of the building. He had trained with Katsumi-chan and Kushina-san, until they had both gotten it down. So, when he reached the apartment, and looked from the open window, the first thing he saw was Naruto reading a book, *Tales of a Gutsy Ninja*, while the water was boiling, probably for his meager dinner with…instant ramen? The boy clearly showed no interest at all at the festivities, instead doing his best to look, and maybe he even was, concentrated on the book.

As Sasuke tried his best to act silently, like a ninja, he had but taken a step inside that a slithering mass has already made him fall over, his face hitting the floor, as an enormous weight nearly crushed him down, keeping him pinned as he could see snakes slither all around the floor.

"Gah!" He yelled, as Naruto stared at the Uchiha in surprise, why did he enter the apartment now? But more than that, who told him?

He refuted the belief it had to be Anko, Anko didn't know him and she wouldn't do that, so it had to be Kakashi, but he had come to apologize, repeatedly, and he wouldn't do something like that intentionally, selling *his location* out. The only remaining one who could have actually done that had to be Kushina. Shino wouldn't have talked, he knew where he lived, but he never talked much, and Sasuke wouldn't have even thought about asking the *Bug-boy* as his prideful being used to call the Aburame.

"Need something?" Naruto queried, signaling the snakes to let the idiotical and prideful boy be, for the moment, as they slithered away, Sasuke actually rubbed his arms and legs with a look akin that of fear, what if some remained on him? Naruto actually pitied the snakes, not the boy.

"I don't. Katsumi wants you to attend her party. She insists you do."

"I don't intend to participate," Naruto replied, "and that ends the discussion."

Sasuke's eyes were bloodshot in fury, was the blond boy actually being the one *conducting* this discussion? No! He was, because he was the Uchiha among the two! He wouldn't have bothered at all with bringing him to the party, actually Katsumi would have probably pouted a bit, but then cake would have made her change her way.

"Listen here, you will…"

"No, Kakashi-san already came and tried to convince me, if he who is a Jounin of Konoha can't, what makes you think YOU can?" the *you* it was a belittlement, the boy wasn't afraid of him, he didn't like him, and he had just trashed on him being an Uchiha. Sasuke was at a loss of words, but he was still a boy…which meant he acted like one.

"I'll bring you by force then!" Normally, a smart enough ninja would have known not to use any fire jutsu inside a small confined space, on the other hand, Sasuke was furious, nobody had ever told him the idiocy of burning to a crisp someone, but more than that, he was sure the blond spiked boy would take the hit head-on, or stop him before he could complete the hand-signs.

Naruto, on the other hand, thought firstly that he had to cover Couch-san and Shiro, and secondly that he should have aimed at the boy's hands.

He moved, fast, but not fast enough as the weights were still on him, against the Uchiha, who, on the other hand, jumping backwards nearly completed the only fire jutsu in his arsenal.

At that moment, however, Naruto luckily managed to get a kick in Sasuke's stomach, stopping him and then throwing him on the ground, holding a chakra metal blade against his neck.

"Are you an idiot?" Naruto muttered, angrily, his eyes slowly turning a shade of red.

"Let me go!" Sasuke's left hand moved into his pants pocket, as he nimbly grabbed a Kunai to stab at Naruto's back, the yell of the blond spiked boy enough to make him lose hold, and to make the Uchiha kick the boy to the side, and move close to the window.

At that moment, Sasuke saw what Kunai he had used, one that had an explosive tag attached to it. He hadn't considered the slip of paper, that had made said kunai easier to take, as an explosive tag, he just had thought, on the spur of the moment, that it didn't matter what it was as long as it got him back on his feet.

Naruto, on the other hand, didn't know, as the Kunai was embedded on his back, so, as Sasuke jumped out of the window, his first thought had been that the brat had been scared for the blood.

"Tsk…what's this sizzling?" the explosion sent him to crash against the other side of the room, as the boiling water in the kettle fell to the side, dousing off the gas' flame but not stopping the gas from exiting, as the valve hadn't been closed. Small cinders of fire flew in the air, swiftly igniting with the gas, and the next moment…well, it was an inferno.

Couch-san, like any other animal, especially the snakes, hated fire. Differently from the little ones, however, he didn't fear it as an animal, but because he knew it was dangerous by itself, with his tail, he broke the only wooden door in the room, hissing to all the younglings to move their damn scales inside. He was still a snake, after all, the water from the aquariums of the sea serpents, to him, who was albeit a lot bigger, seemed more than enough a *safe* refuge.

His eyes turned to the boy, however, who wasn't standing back up.

**Well, well, well. **The Kyuubi spoke slowly, staring at the consciousness of Naruto, slowly drifting away from the pain. **Look who's knocking on the Shinigami's door again.**

_It's just…It's just a flesh wound._

**Yeah, like the ones from years ago. *Set him alight* what a nice way to die. Fire slowly burning away your skin, your muscle tissue, and everything else there is. Nobody is going to save you, isn't it? How good! I can. I also will, if you want me to. **

_I can…make it._

**To the window, maybe, but what about the Snaky-chans? You'd need to have an escape for them, and the only way would be to destroy the walled in door and have them exit through the inner stairs. You know, I'm sure they're still going to pin the blame for having burned the building to you and…**

_You're wasting…my time. _Naruto's eyes slowly narrowed, as the smoke and the acre smell of gas filled his lungs, as he crawled, slowly but surely, towards the gas valve, near the kitchen angle.

All he had to do was close it. All he had to do was spin it to the side and the fire would dwell down, and everything would be fine. His back was hurting him, but not too much. He actually had to thank the weights for having absorbed some of the shock. Just why was the damn brat going around with an explosive tag? Firework for ninja for the special today? He was actually angry at the idiots who would sell on a whim a weapon, dangerous like that, to a spoiled brat.

_I sound…so old. _Naruto chuckled as he moved his right arm closer, the heat was scorching, his back was ablaze with pain, but he couldn't stop now. He promised Anko-chan, didn't he? He promised he'd protect this house with his own life. This wasn't only his house. It was also Anko's. He still had to pay her back for all the five months of rent. Even then, he didn't want her to leave. She was surely going to be pissed when she was going to come back. Nobody was seeing the fire, the flame was slowly getting the best on the concrete's corner, leaving burnt black marks, but the smoke was exiting only from the open window to the other side of the room, which meant it wasn't that much visible, and it wouldn't have bother the people down below, who were singing and chanting and being drunk with Sake. He couldn't use a Raiton to open an escape route. The Fox was a damn bastard. He had wind affinity! He knew wind, and thus air would make the flame grow, and if he opened a hole in the wall…it would probably suck in the air and blow him to near smithereens, he was sure of it, the fox just wanted him dead as much as anyone else, but at least, she did it cunningly.

**Well, no, I actually thought it was a sound escape plan.**

_Yeah…like hell I'll believe it._

He was just a couple of crawling pushes away from the valve, as the tip of his finger touched it, however, he gritted his teeth in pain, it was obviously scorching to the touch too. It couldn't have been cool, or cold, or wet, no, it was warm, boiling point and beyond.

Well, so much for his remaining strengths, as he fell to the side he stared at Couch-san's gaze on him, it was a sad one…like his were those of the other snakes around the bigger one, they were all staring at him, hoping that he'd solve the problem. He was the only one who could.

He yelled as his right arm darted forward, as his right hand was engulfed by the flames nearby he didn't care, he spun the gas valve swiftly, with all the strength he had, not caring the fire was slowly creeping on his clothes, not even thinking for a moment about the burns, the pain, what else was going to happen.

He would turn that damn valve off for the sake of his friends.

Snakes as friends…well…he chuckled, as the valve gave way and started to stop the gas output.

"Better than half of Konoha, right?" as he whispered that, he fell on his knees, as the remaining of the fire burned away the remaining of the gas, before turning off.

_Water sprinklers…I've got to buy them too…_

…**and the powdered ramen, it was the last package.**

_Damn it._

He chuckled, as he fell, his face first on the ground.

He stared at the snakes slowly moving closer to him, some with an even sadder look than before.

Why were they sad about it? Everything was fine, right?

That's when he realized he wasn't feeling the familiar slithering down his neck, or his right arm, or his body.

That's when he saw with the corner of his eyes a half turned to smithereens white snake skin. That's when he realized he had no weights on his back, as the Kunai wouldn't have otherwise embedded itself deeply into it. That's when he understood just why he hadn't suffered the full blunt of the hit.

Shiro had jumped at the Kunai and had done his best to pull it out from him, to keep it away from him, and he had taken the full force of the blow.

Shiro was dead…because he had been weak.

As he slowly drifted into unconsciousness, he couldn't help but think what Anko was going to say, when she got back.

Anko actually got back a bit early than she thought. After all, she couldn't just leave the boy alone for his birthday the entire day. She even grinned, as she was holding into her right hand a small bag, with something the boy was clearly going to like: a small cake for his birthday. It was pretty simple, cream and chocolate, but who didn't love cream and chocolate?

She stopped however, when she reached the window. She could feel the faint smell of smoke coming from within and, with a sigh, entered the apartment muttering.

"Really, I told you not to burn the house Naru-chan! Did you try and c…" she stopped, staring at the scene. In a corner, his back nearly stripped of flesh, with burnt marks all over and his right hand that looked more like a scorched match than a real hand, stood Naruto, he had gone to close the gas valve, clearly. However, a bloodied Kunai stood piercing a side of the wall, and the all too familiar signs of an explosive tag were clear in the room. Couch-san and the others had all been surrounding Naruto, actually holding him in a sort of protective *nest* while they were probably waiting for her to come back home.

…nobody had ever gone that far with her in their bickering of *snake mistress*, *Orochimaru's bitch* and so on. The boy had done all he could to hide himself from the mass, and she, like a stupid idiot, hadn't thought about those that had something against HER. She was clearly blaming herself. The guys against Naruto were mostly mobs of civilians, but those who had something against her were usually Jounins, or Anbus, guys who had faced off and saw their squad mates die against Orochimaru…and there stood the boy who didn't judge her, half charred, completely and utterly fainted and barely hanging on to his life, and her first sentence coming in had been about how he had better not have burnt the house? She dropped the cake where it was, and grabbed the small blond bundle, before dashing off towards the hospital, turning just slightly around to say to the snakes, which stood there.

"I'm going to question you bunch later on…and you'd better have a good excuse." With that, she was off, while the snakes actually turned to one other, hissing about…how screwed they were.

Anko had barely made it to the hospital, that already she had grabbed the first two medic Nins and had, quite *vehemently* brought them, no matter their excuses, to take a look and heal the boy. To make them work faster, she had pointed out how her snakes could bite them off with a highly poisonous and deadly neurotoxin that worked on the nerves of the unlucky bastards who took it in their bloodstreams. She was the only one with the antidote, and if the two bastards wanted it, because yeah, she had already injected it into them through her snakes' fangs, then they had better heal the damn boy.

As Anko stood outside the operation room, staring at the hospital's floor, she was soon reached by a hurried Kakashi.

"…what happened?" strangely enough, he too had some sort of covered in gift paper tube, not bigger than half an arm, and he did sport serious bite marks on his face, "by the way, your snakes were furious when I tried getting in."

"Somebody attacked Naruto, to get me. They nearly burned the house down, that's what the bastards did. If I get my grasps on them, I'm killing them, Hokage or not." Anko slowly spoke of what she had seen, and of how grave the boy's conditions were. She was surprised when Kakashi didn't actually mention anything about her *improper* use of Anbu-class poisons, something deep down told her he'd have done the same, or maybe even worst.

"I…I tried to convince him to attend his…cousin's birthday party," Kakashi muttered, "but I didn't actually want him to go there too…it would just hurt the boy too much, so I didn't press it on. When he refused, I thought it would be a better thing to buy him something, you know, today is actually his own birthday too."

"I know…he told me," Anko replied, in a whisper, "I actually got him cake…which fell on the floor, so I suppose I'll have to toss that away."

"Yeah…he never enjoyed his birthdays…there just seems to be some sort of wicked god that enjoys having him suffer on this day in particular." As Kakashi replied that, one of the two medic-nins came out with a flustered face, panting.

"It's…It's done! He's stable and sleeping now! The antidote!" He did have a slightly green hue on him.

"First I see the boy then maybe I'll be kind enough to give it to you." Anko muttered back, dashing, followed by Kakashi who actually *eye-smiled* and waved at the doctor, before they both entered the Intensive Care room where Naruto was laying, asleep, face down. His right hand was bandaged, and his back was plastered with a sort of beige cream…his signs were stable, however, and the other medic-nin, who was in the room, muttered.

"He's fine and stable…can we get the antidote now?"

"Oh, there's no antidote…there truly was no poison to begin with." Anko replied with a smile, and before the medic could say anything, she tossed him out with her sleeve-snakes.

"You know…I should inform the Hokage about this," Kakashi replied, but then raised his hands in a *Surrender* attitude, especially at the stare from Anko, "but on the other hand…I won't. Sensei's not his usual self since a good while…and I already betrayed his trust once…" Kakashi looked at the boy, who was lightly snoring, under the sedative's effects, probably, "I just can't do it again…he's a good boy."

*Kumo-months later*

The Toad sage had actually been known to be walking across Kumo the moment a group of really angry Kumo civilians had started sending in letters to the Raikage to solve the problem of a fifty years old pervert peeping at them. As Jiraiya himself was now standing in the Raikage's office, the only reason A was willingly to let it slide was that, firstly he was sure the legendary Sannin was as slippery to catch as the symbol etched on his forehead protector he wore, the one that mentioned *oil*, secondly, because he had brought him Naruto's first letter in months of waiting. He would have called Yugito into the office, but every time she stared at him she started prolonging her nails and trying to scratch him, repeatedly, and, he wouldn't admit it, he was pretty sure she would snatch the letter away and would be feral about sharing the news inside with the others, at least until she had made carbon copies of it.

A slowly opened the letter, and started to read Naruto's words.

_Otou-san! Thanks for the letter!_

_I'm being a good boy and a good ninja, so say that to Yugito-oneechan too so that she stops worrying! (I know she's worrying, she always does, but I'm fine, really!) Say to B that I can't wait to meet him again: we've got to get the party starting and the rhymes going after all! Tell Darui that I'm *cool* here, and that I miss his Kenjutsu practices. Can you also say to C that I'm doing my best in learning sensor techniques? I'll be sure to get it on with medic-nin training too, so I'll be able to heal myself if I get wounded (and he won't go around snapping necks, like he usually promises to do), please, don't worry about me, I'm going to be fine! I met a really nice lady, who seems to have some sort of bad past like me, and we're getting along just fine! Her name is Anko, and she's usually very cheerful! By the way, I'm surviving by myself, not taking in any of Konoha's charity at all! I'm a Kumo ninja through thick and thin! Thank you for the forehead protector and the gift inside…they did trash my old forehead…but now everything's fine, really! I also have made a friend, he's name is Shino Aburame and his father has an orchard, you wouldn't believe me when I tell you that their insects are tamed! Oh yes, I also got a really cool new friend! It's a, guess what, a white snake! I called him Shiro, (Sue me for not being original, Otou-san), and he likes to stay on my right arm or on my neck. The nice lady Anko-chan has a lot of really nice snakes! There's even a snake as big as a couch, who's called Couch-san!_

_I'm sorry I can't write more, but Jiraiya-san is in a real hurry to leave, and I can't have him waste more time…the sooner he leaves the sooner you get my letter, right? I bro-fist you back, Otou-san, and also B and I hug Yugito-oneechan and I say *Cool* to Darui and I hand-five C. _

_Yours perfectly fine son, _

_Naruto!_

_Ps: really, tell Yugito-oneechan she has nothing to worry about, I'm fine!_

The Raikage stared at the letter for a moment, reading it repeatedly, before folding it neatly.

"How is he, really?"

"He's doing fine A-san, he's a really polite fellow, one that, in a few years, I wouldn't mind taking on as an apprentice," as Jiraiya spoke that, A's gaze turned thoughtful.

"He'll still choose Kumo, you know?"

"Doesn't matter, I've ended in some sort of…disagreement, with Minato's recent way of seeing things." Jiraiya's gaze hardened just slightly, but A's eyes turned steel at the name of that damn son-kidnapper.

"In two years, if I come to know that the bastard did anything, anything at all to my son…I might just as well grab his head and smash it against the dirt, got it?" as A muttered that, Jiraiya, actually, for once, couldn't help but nod.

"I'll just make sure the citizens of Konoha don't get harmed in the process." With that, the two men actually started drinking some Sake, *special reserve* that the Raikage kept hidden from his secretary, Samui.

Later, the tale of how the Raikage had dashed through the alleyways, fearing for his own life, after not handing over Naruto's letter to the Nibi Jinchuuriki if not after more than an entire day made it clear to everyone not to trifle with a really angry cat. Especially when the corollary of the story spoke of how the Raikage's secretary, realizing the drunken state the Kage had been in, had done pretty much the same thing, only with maybe even more fury.

Nobody actually felt the need to belittle A, however…they kind of pitied him.

*Same Time-Konoha*

Naruto stood up from the bed, staring at the burnt mark in the corner of the room, and sighed, as he went to slightly shake Anko awake.

"Anko-Oneechan…Wake up, time to go to work." The purple haired Kunoichi sighed, since when did he become so strict?

"Today's the exam huh?" She whispered, as she yawned before heading to the table, where food was waiting. Naruto's cooking skills were actually top-notch…she had at first feared he would have hated even going close to the fire ever again. Instead, he had actually done the opposite. He sought out the flame like a moth drawn to the light, and he even seemed to take a perverse pleasure in turning it off, but his kind smile, he gave that to a few people actually, to the others, his gaze was hardened, cold, it made people jumpy. He wasn't there to waltz around and be kicked or hit by the mob; he was there to be feared by the mob: the number of nearly deadly electrocutions in Konoha had drastically reduced themselves with time, and even those who usually wanted to pester Anko had stopped, she wouldn't put her finger on it, but there were some whispers in her department that some sort of night demon had broken bones and tore apart muscles of many Jounin and Anbu class ninjas, who had awoken the next morning with incredible bouts of pain, but without being able to move and had to scream to get the attention of their neighbors.

"Yeah…another headband," Naruto replied as he headed towards the window, "got to go, or Shino would probably come here to grab me by force."

"Oh the shades-boy," saying *bug-boy* was a big no-no, especially with Naruto in the same room, "nice kid, quiet type, Anko-Oneechan approves of him as a friend. Don't go swinging the other way however! Remember I'm counting on you to be my ticket out of Hag-hood!" as she grinned that, Naruto smiled back, before waving goodbye, and dashing to school.

His thoughts lingered on Gai-sensei and Lee-kun, the first two visitors of when he had been in the hospital, maybe the first two to actually know he was in the hospital. They had actually given him a good laugh and had talked about the five hours straight of interrogation with Anko and Kakashi that Sasuke had to go through. The Uchiha was the last of his clan, but he had tried to kill Naruto, and he did try to escape and give the fault on someone else entirely. In the end, the Hokage had no choice…Sasuke Uchiha, proud member of the Uchiha clan, was forced to work in the afternoons for the garbage collection department, till graduation. Anko had been furious, but that had been the most they could *punish* such a *promising young ninja* with. So, as of that day, usually Sasuke got back home with snake bites on his hands, as *snakes* tended to take a liking to biting him every day. No matter where he was or with who he was or what he was doing.

As Naruto neared the school, he jumped down to enter the academy's courtyard, and stared as Kiba, the Inuzuka, waved at him.

"Yo Naruto-san!"

"Naruto is fine, Kiba," actually, it was to be said that Naruto didn't mind a little bit of flattery, but really, Kiba and his *the alpha is the alpha* was a bit annoying. He was another one of those *direct types* Naruto liked. He hated something? He said that out loud. He liked something, or someone? He said that out loud, even too loud when it came to girls.

"Well, we've got a test to ace right?" with that Kiba clapped his hands together, before adding, "I just hope for that poor bastard not to end up with you in the Taijutsu part…I don't want to fight with blood on the ring!" Sasuke, obviously, didn't have a nice and fun school life either. It wasn't that he felt being bullied, nor that Naruto actively sought him out, it was that, if Naruto in practice was kind enough to *hold back* with others, with Sasuke, he broke bones. He did it naturally, however. It didn't seem like the bones were broken until the Uchiha would whimper about the arm hurting.

Katsumi, on the other hand, knew that no matter what there was no way she'd get through Naruto's armor now. If before there was a slim chance…now there were none. She had to help Sasuke out, because they were, at least in her eyes, friends. Doing that however utterly distanced her from Naruto. As many of the Uchiha's fan girls kept being with the boy, the class actually wasn't a happy one from that day onwards. On one side, there were those who were fine with Sasuke's way of doing things, or who were his friends, on the other there were those who thought the Uchiha had gone way over his due date, and needed to be toned down, and the third side was that of those who simply didn't give a damn about either sides, which obviously held Shikamaru as its prime leader.

"Troublesome." The Nara muttered, moving behind the two in front of him, "just do me a favor…don't hit Ino or Sakura too hard." He wasn't completely against it, heck, Shikamaru could completely understand the reasoning, he still didn't like it, but he could understand it. He even saw value in it, but still…hitting girls wasn't good on his consciousness. If they were actually ninja girls, and not girls simply fawning over make-up and Sasuke, then he'd actually have no qualms, but they were more civilians than shinobis. A pity since Ino's family was one of the ninja families most renowned in Konoha, for their *mind diving* jutsu.

"…depends on what they're going to say." Naruto replied, heading for his seat in utter silence, where next to him, Shino stood in wait.

"I hope we will be in good teams." The Aburame spoke, not even bothering to say good luck on passing the test, it was obvious they would, after all.

"Yeah…don't die on me out there." Naruto replied, bringing his right fist forward.

Shino fist-bumped the boy back, a small grin on his face.

"Fine by me, Bro."

**Author's notes**

**Cliffhanger? Yep, sorry but I didn't know where to finish this chapter.**

**We did the month-time-advancement, now we're going for canon, there will be flashbacks of what happened at hospital and afterwards...just when it will hurt the most! *evil chuckle*.**

**Instead of doing the land of Waves arc, I'll be using another C-level escort mission. (Gah, there's thousands of OVA's and Films to take them from, I'll find the most heart-wrenching). **

**Then it's Chuunin arc time…huhuhu.**

**Q&A time!**

**AramilOniasha: he used that name with the hospital's checkups in Konoha when he was young, when Yugito queries it and says *hospitals* it clicks in, (next chapter probably answered that)**

**Seigzeon: Glad you like Kumo…and yeah, I'm sure you're not going to be happy about Shiro-chan…but don't worry, he won't be the last to die! …no wait, that came out wrong. But it just feels right.**

**Yesshe: The pairing would just be a plus, nothing more, I just kind of think that when I write, the character *drifts* on their own accord on the storyline, and in the end they start getting their own personalities, doing stuff *their*ways. All I do is give them the push, or the kick in the back, and then point at the ending saying: "Go!" sometimes, it brings forward completely different endings, and all I do is facepalm and sigh as why my characters hate me so much not to follow the plotline. XD. **

**That said, thank you for the compliment! I usually do not update *this* fast, but with this storyline, I feel the *Youthful fire of spring* Tm in my eyes and veins!**

**Maleivius: thanks! Yeah, the tension-drama/bout of happiness are what is needed in a story, as the reader too must be taken into account: *chapters and chapters* of same moping and sad atmosphere tires out after a while. One needs happiness…to plunge into the depths of despair!**

**Dragonskyt: Don't worry Bro, I've got you covered with another chapter!**

**Angeldoctor: Yeah, I thought I *hadn't* made it that obvious, but then again, it *was* obvious too.**

**Thuglife16: Can I ask what you didn't like at first? I enjoy hearing constructive criticism, it helps in the long run.**

**Syynex: And like a boss I roll out another update.**

**Dbzsotrum9: yes he will, but in a flashback.**

**Ezcap1st: Katsumi *is* annoying. She's a sort of mixture between the original Naruto (that orange clad noisy brat) and a sort of fangirlish Sakura. (YEAH, the horrible mixture of the two annoys me even in my dreams) But it's going to be fun later on…oh yeah…*laughs maniacally*. As for Root…wait and see…oh wait and see.**

**Mzr90: Well…it was an explosive one alright.**

**Hope I answered everyone! **


	10. Execution

Tenth chapter

When life decides that you're on her black list, on her evil doers list, on her *Karma truly hates you* list, it sends you something, some sort of clue, like a volcanic eruption the day you're born, or a murder of crows at your window, Naruto got the Kyuubi, that should have been a big enough sign that life actually had him among the most wanted on her hit-list.

As the sun timidly peaked over the clouds that were slowly but surely moving around Konohagakure, a boy stood with a slightly frowning face in front of his opponent. Obviously, it couldn't have been someone he'd like to fight. Truth be told, it wasn't even somebody *worth* being fought.

So, as it turned out, his opponent in the Taijutsu spar turned out to be Sakura Haruno.

The surname, it had taken a while to connect the dots, with the elderly woman of the orphanage who had treated him so *kindly*. Once he had, however, he had simply loathed the girl, maybe he should have come to know her better, Yugito-oneechan always told him not to stop at the first impression, but still, how much further away from the tree could an apple fall? In the case of Sakura, it seemed that it actually fell on a lower branch: whiny frigging weak-willed girl whose only purpose in life seemed to mate with Sasuke Uchiha, and whose only ninja creed was to keep a graceful figure. She was purposely the first in written tests, chakra control exercises came to her easily, and she was good with the Ninjutsu, the basic academy one of Konoha…which meant it was worthless in a real battle. Naruto could break her like a twig. Even better, he could crush her, break her leg bones, reduce her to a beaten pulp to the side of the ring and leave her there as a blood stain for those who would follow…a bit macabre, but it still wouldn't make it up for all the waste of air the girl breathed.

He could do that, but Shino was nearby, as was Shikamaru. The two didn't hate him, obviously, and he too didn't hate them, Shino was his new *Bro*, and Shikamaru was *too troublesome* to have as an enemy. There was purpose for them being there, obviously, he had been the one to suggest it, once they had heard the pairings for the test.

"Just…Shika stop me and Shino drain me, if I go out of hand, okay?" The two had nodded. Naruto was anything, but not a cold-blooded murderer…it's just that, since *that* event, his bouts of anger had simply grown, and there were times where he was simply uncontrollable. His right hand hadn't been lost. The Kyuubi regeneration powers were truly something, his back was scarred like, listening to Anko's tale, that of Ibiki Morino, one of her colleagues at the Interrogation department. Still, since that time, his anger had simply become nearly uncontrollable. There were moments where he simply wanted to tear down and destroy everything on his path, and he stopped only if someone close to him called his name. Anko had been the first, to stop him from pummeling to death a drunken ninja who had called her *Snake bitch*, he had kept at it until Anko had pleaded him in tears, calling his name. He didn't want to see Anko-Oneechan cry, not for things he did. He was feared, and that was fine. Better to be feared in silence, than to be pointed at or hit by the mob.

As he stood on the ring, his dark green jacket and his slightly bright green shirt, with black cargo pants, the pink-haired girl, wearing a dark red one-piece dress, with black thigh shorts, was clearly nervous. She would have forfeited immediately, but doing that would have meant zero points. She needed at least five points to actually be certain to pass, she did ace the test, and she was certain all the Ninjutsu would come perfectly, but she still needed *some* points in Taijutsu. Kami had decided that today was going to be her unlucky day, however.

"Only Taijutsu, remember we're among friends…no breaking bones." Iruka muttered, his tone was actually pleading, as he was pretty sure that he, as a Chuunin, wouldn't be able to stop Naruto from effectively landing in a bone-breaking strike, all he needed was to punch the girl to break a bone, he was just *that* strong, if he didn't hold back, that was.

"Give up, Sakura-chan!" Ino yelled: some points in a test weren't just worth a complete facial remake. Even make-up had its limit. She was even willing to not call her forehead-girl, if it actually saved her *ex-best friend for life* face.

"You'd wish Ino-pig! I'm not going to risk failure just because of him!" as Sakura yelled that back, Naruto chuckled. The boy had always acted like a cold-hearted jerk, both to her and any other girl in class, making a slim to none exception with Hinata, and only because Kiba had spoken nicely of her to his new *boss*. Not that the boy cared in the slightest about any of his classmates, Sakura was sure he simply deemed them all worthless, even her *Sasuke-kun*, who was just in need of someone to warm his heart, had been forced into working in the garbage collection system till then, he was the last of the Uchiha clan! A really famous clan that would, clearly with her be brought back to its former glory.

"Iruka-sensei, how about you just give me full marks, and I avoid fighting her? She can fight the other cheerleader," as the boy said that with a smirk, he pointed at Ino with his right index finger, "So I don't stain my hands with weaklings, and you don't risk losing a student to a test." Iruka…Iruka was just actually thinking about that. It wasn't a matter of pride, Naruto had gone from sweet to outright steel in a matter of days, after a couple of days of hospital leave, and he no longer played around. He wasn't boasting, to him Sakura *was* weak and even Iruka admitted it: in Taijutsu, the young Haruno had no hopes, none at all, to even scratch the boy. It would just be a one-sided battle…life wasn't fair however, he knew it, and the students were bound to know it too.

"No, the sorting has been completely casual…and you might just lose to her, it can happen." Iruka just wished he could stop time, hit himself repeatedly, and then try another sentence. Naruto wasn't like Sasuke. Sasuke scoffed, growled at knowing someone was stronger, moped in a corner and then trained alone, or he otherwise dismissed the issue of *someone being stronger than him*, without even trying to fight them. Naruto nodded in silence, acknowledged what the truth really was, and then proceeded to prove his point, actually fighting to show if the words could have any value... It was deadly. It was silent. He didn't boast or growl or be annoyed, he acted...like a ninja, and that was scary, because it came from an eleven year old.

"What is it? You scared to fight me, you snake…" the words she wished to say were interrupted by a loud yell from Shikamaru, who, while thinking it was troublesome, still thought it was less troublesome than having to attend a funeral.

"Enough! It's troublesome as it is right now! Sensei give the go, the sooner we get this done the better it is!" Iruka stared at the bout of anger of the Nara, who weren't renowned for it, but nodded, raising his right arm.

"Go!" as the arm got down, the battle was already over. Sakura had kind of hoped she would have been able to at least strike the boy, but she hadn't got any luck…Naruto had come to school without his weights just for today. Sure, he had hope to face off against someone who could at least pack some punch, like Kiba, he enjoyed sparring with Kiba, this instead…he just felt merciful.

His right hand held Sakura tightly in a chokehold, he hadn't moved much except in a straight line, all techniques of Taijutsu in defense were worthless to begin with, if you didn't have the eyes to see the enemy's attack, or if you simply weren't fast enough to actually *block* the attacks, but as Sakura weakly tried to get that hand off, that hand that was like a damn snake, or even crocodile, bite, Naruto, unfazed, turned his gaze to Iruka.

"Iruka-sensei…I am stronger than her." He pointed that out, just like Iruka thought he would. He actually gave her a fighting chance. Sure, it was a split second window for her to make any sort of move, and it was her fault that she hadn't done anything. Someone like Shikamaru would have probably seen it, but would have been to slow to act, Kiba would have certainly been more pissed off at him for having *played around* and wouldn't have used it, but she did nothing. She didn't see it and she didn't use it. She was weak, and Naruto wasn't.

"Is this enough for full marks, Sensei?" as Naruto queried that, Iruka cringed, he knew what the boy actually meant: if it wasn't he'd beat the hell out of the girl, using all the techniques in the book of the academy. It was giving Iruka the choice: either grace the girl or don't. He was washing his hands clean of the matter, to him, she wasn't a stepping stone, an enemy, a classmate or a friend, she was just *there*, he had no bouts about her actually passing or failing, as he didn't have an actual problem with beating another eleven years old to a bloody pulp.

"Y-Yes, it's enough Naruto-kun." The boy nodded, releasing his iron grip and letting Sakura fall on the ground, her legs too shaky to do anything, her face pale as she greedily breathed in air into her air-deprived lungs.

Naruto slowly got down from the ring, staring at Shikamaru for a moment, before grinning.

"Thank you."

"Meh…troublesome," the Nara replied, shrugging it off.

Shino sighed in relief too.

"Merciful." He pointed that out.

"Yeah boss, you could have given her a good lesson, maybe spanking her on the ring, you know!" Kiba replied with a nice grin, "damn whiny bitch and that guy!"

Nobody felt comfortable saying Sasuke's name in front of Naruto, as no-one had a death wish. Even when rolling attendance, Sasuke was simply called by his family name, and even that tended to make Naruto's skin crawl. He just wanted to smash him on the ground and let him feel what it meant to explode into smithereens, he just wanted to smash every single bone he had and show him the meaning of pain, and the more the time passed, the more that anger boiled inside of Naruto, then the more dangerous it would be the moment it would explode.

The Taijutsu practices came to an end, with Sasuke battling a fan-girl who forfeited for *her love*, Kiba beating the hell out of a boy, Shino holding his ground, Shikamaru muttering *troublesome* as he repeatedly used the same old academy Taijutsu to get *some* points. Katsumi battled another girl, and, as it degenerated into a catfight, Naruto simply turned around, not wanting to see such a debased use of Taijutsu, as Kiba had a slight nosebleed from seeing pieces of clothing flying.

Secondly, it was the long-range throwing, where Mizuki was the examiner.

Naruto stared at Mizuki, and saying nothing, he hit the bull's eye every time, with slow precise movements, acting kind of annoyed even when faced with moving targets, like he was walking in a park in an annoying morning. Then, after everyone else took their turns, it came the turn of the Ninjutsu…

"So…Naruto-kun," as Iruka spoke, the blond hair boy muttered back.

"Listen sensei: say the Jutsus names and I'll do them all. No need to make this longer than it should be." Iruka sighed, and then nodded.

"Just make a Bunshin, a Henge, and a Kawarimi." Naruto would have rolled his eyes over, and would have probably made a Kage Bunshin to do it too, if only he feared the Kage Bunshin would have actually conjured another clone to do the same stuff. There were limits that even the clones weren't thinking about passing.

With the most *unenthusiastic* behavior ever displayed in an exam, Naruto obeyed and produced everything in the blink of an eye, yawning at the end, as he slowly rubbed his eyes from the need to sleep.

"Naruto-kun," Iruka had a nervous tick mark on his forehead, as he forced himself to smile, and to remember that he was just a kid, a kid who could pretty much be a genius, but never the less a kid, "congratulations on passing with full marks. Some enthusiasm wouldn't kill you, you know?"

"Yeah…well, I'll be off then?" As Naruto turned towards the door, Iruka coughed pointing at the leaf Headbands on the table.

"I really need to take one?"

"I'm afraid so…why did you actually bother going to the academy, if you didn't want one?" Iruka refrained from hitting the boy on the head, usually they cried or begged to take one, they didn't feel extremely pissed about it.

"Maybe because it was either this or forced brainwashing in Anbu?"

Naruto sighed, as he grabbed it with the point of his thumb and of his index, not refraining from outright showing some sort of disgust at it, before slowly moving out.

Both Iruka and Mizuki remained silent for a moment, as the boy slowly moved outside. That as an answer wasn't expected.

"Iruka-san…isn't it risky to give him a Konoha headband?" Mizuki was the first to interrupt the tense silence, as he queried, perplexed, "He doesn't want one, clearly, but with it he can have access to the ninja supplies of Konoha…and if he does something with that headband on, it might bring trouble to the leaf."

"Hokage's orders…he got the permission from the Daimyo, who is all too happy to have an alliance with Kumo…still, it's going to be hell assigning the teams…" as Iruka muttered that, he stared at the chart, Naruto wasn't the last one to be tested, there were still others, but unless they passed two more students…there was bound to be a team of more than three or one with only one student…said student obviously being Naruto.

The Hokage had final say on the teams, so all Iruka could do was give hints on the principal characteristics and hope, sincerely hope, that wherever the boy ended up, he'd come to like his teammates. He did double cross out of the equation Sasuke and Him on the same team, too risky, and he did clearly write in bright red and orange that he, Shino and Kiba were possible a good team, with at most Shikamaru in the mix. He knew it would be slim to nothing thought, as the Nara-Yamanaka-Akimichi formation was too well known in Konoha.

There was another thing he actually feared. That the Hokage would do what would result in the most horrible day ever for him.

While on one side, the teacher was thinking that, on the other, Naruto was trying to decide wherever tying the headband of Konoha to his sandals, so that he could walk on it every step of the way, would be deemed too much of an insult. He didn't want to offend Anko, or Shino, or Kiba…but he didn't want *that* thing on him.

As he thought about that, he looked inside his right sleeve.

"…Kuro, come out." The snake that emerged from his sleeve was black, kind of the opposite of what Shiro had been, he was thicker, bigger, and had blue eyes, the only strange feature in an otherwise perfectly normal poisonous black snake. His gaze was hard but it wasn't mean, it just looked scornful, but deep down the snake was a softy, only, one had to go really deep down...and be called either Anko or Naruto. Kuro stared at the headband of Konoha while raising, with a puzzled expression, his right pupil…he didn't have eyebrows, obviously.

"Not a chance in hell." The snake replied, shaking his head before going back into the sleeve. Did the boy take him for a trash can? He knew perfectly well how much he hated Konoha, and, since he was his snake, he hated Konoha too. It was a sort of empathic bond between the two, the sole reason he was the only snake capable of eating ramen. That had brought a funny expression on Anko, when she had found out. She had actually worn a pink kimono for an entire week after that, promising herself never, ever again to take on a bet with the boy.

"Oh come on! You're no fun you know that?" Naruto whined, before kicking some dirt to the side and moving to leave the academy, thankful that nobody, actually, of the families that stood there at the gates, spoke to him, leaving instead a nice empty space for him to walk through.

"Naruto-kun!" The voice, damn did he hate that voice, why couldn't he just dash away? Oh yes, the voice wasn't alone, there was also that bastard with her, who needed but a flick of the hand to send him crawling on the ground. Naruto stopped, trying to avoid showing off more hate than he was meant to, and slowly turned around, trying his best forceful smile he could.

"Yes, Uzumaki-sama, Hokage-sama?"

"So you're now a ninja of Konoha. Like your friends, Shino-kun and Kiba-kun," as Kushina said that with a smile, and a little grin, Naruto turned his gaze to the Hokage, who said nothing, quite actually avoiding his stare, as the boy sighed, and replied.

"So it would seem, Uzumaki-sama, at least now I won't risk the Anbu program," Naruto muttered, gritting his teeth, just four more years, four more years of this hell and then he'd be free to go back to Kumo, he couldn't wait the Chuunin exams, just so he could finally see Yugito-Oneechan and his Otou-san again.

"You know, I'm going to be the one to assign the teams…I could place you with them," Minato muttered, staring at the boy, he knew he wouldn't trust him, it was pretty clear he wouldn't, not after having failed to punish the Uchiha, who he himself *would* have wanted to kill with his own hands, that much was clear, but the damn council had refused, claiming it was just a kid's prank without the intent to harm, "That is, if you can provide convincing arguments over a lunch..." there, his plan to coerce the boy into a lunch had been done, wherever he accepted it or not Kushina would have seen he had actually tried to.

"Thank you for your so kind offer," Naruto replied, before narrowing his gaze towards the school's exit, "but I think you're not going to enjoy your lunch, Hokage-sama, Uzumaki-sama…and I do not want to make your family uncomfortable," with that, Naruto turned and walked away, as Kushina, turning around, stared at Katsumi coming to her…empty-handed. She did not have the forehead protector of the Konoha's ninjas, and she was outright crying.

Naruto was trying his best to keep his thoughts from meddling with him dashing gleefully back home.

_Ah! She didn't pass! She didn't pass!_

**Such a display of happiness from other's disgraces…I like it.**

_I know it's not the right thing to think, or say…but she didn't pass! The spoiled little Hokage's brat didn't pass!_

**You know that tomorrow, they're going to assign the teams, right?**

_Yeah, and?_

**You just ditched the Hokage, who is going to be extremely angry at you for not having gone with him to lunch.**

Naruto stopped on a roof, half-frozen in fear.

**Said Hokage who can promote people on his own whims...**

_No._

**Team balancing means that there must be the dead last with the rookie of the year.**

_No._

**If he goes against the sensei's decision, and promotes her by force…**

_He wouldn't DARE!_

**I think he actually would…and with *Uzumaki-sama* as the Jounin leader…**

_No, I'll go back to the academy; I have the right, correct?_

**Because he'd let you, really? He'll just force you…**

_I need to speak with Anko-Oneechan...or Kakashi-san._

**Like they can do anything about it…**

Naruto bit his left hand, trying to shake off the desire to yell, instead dashing, like a mad-man, to where he knew Kakashi would be: the memorial stone of the Konoha's cemetery. He actually jumped from a tree to the entrance of the cemetery, as he didn't feel like disrespecting the dead by jumping from tree to tree like a monkey, just so he could reach the silver-haired Jounin more quickly.

He slowly got to the sensei's back, and waited patiently, as Kakashi slowly turned around, making his *eye-smile* that still didn't come to Naruto. It had to be some sort of little Genjutsu, that the boy wasn't able to replicate.

"What brings you here, Naruto-kun? Want to go poison hunting?" Naruto shook his head, before explaining the problem, Kakashi hadn't obviously queried wherever he had passed, or not, the exam: he could clearly see the Konoha's headband, in the boy's right hand, once he finished, the copy-cat ninja nodded.

"Well, the only way for that to happen would be for the Hokage to publicly do an act of favoritism, something that he cannot do, unless he wants Danzo, his principal rival, to seize the opportunity. He can however place you in a damn horrible team with a damn horrible sensei, if he wants that." Naruto groaned, "But at least your cousin won't be with you, unless she actually manages an impossible feat like learning a forbidden jutsu or defeating a chuunin level ninja."

Naruto smiled…yeah that would be impossible, the girl only cared about fashion, Sasuke, and the likes, there was no way she could do any of that by tomorrow, when the teams would be announced…he was safe.

"You'd like to go eat some Ramen? Anko-Oneechan isn't coming back home till later tonight, she's got work to do," as Naruto queried that, a bit hesitantly, Kakashi nodded, he *was* a bit hungry. Though he supposed the real reason for why the boy would do that was to see under his mask, a fact that had made Naruto curious since he had started to notice just how *difficult* it was to find out.

Kakashi chuckled, as they made their way towards Ichiraku's, and recalled just how the boy had changed, after going so close to death. He knew he also had *his gift* on him, it was nothing more than a chakra metal Ninjato, since the boy seemed to have a natural affinity with lightning, albeit it should have been wind, it could prove fatal in enemies who'd cross blades with him. With the wind affinity che could cut, with the lightning he could numb down the enemies muscle. With good enough training, he'd be a force to be reckoned with. Obviously without a Kekkei Genkai, the combined use of the two would prove to be a feat, but in time, and with experience, Kumo would get a great strength to be reckoned with, the copy-cat ninja had no illusions on which side the boy would choose, he knew that, no matter how much he actually wanted the boy to have a change of heart, choose Konoha, and take him on as his apprentice, he'd choose Kumo. Kakashi was fine with it, as long as they didn't, later on, have to meet on the battlefield as enemies, but if the alliance treaties stayed, then there was bound to be no problem at all. The two sat in front of Teuchi and his daughter, and, as Naruto showed off without a single bit of pride the headband, Ayame giggled.

"Well, I was told ninja graduates were all happy about their forehead protectors…you don't seem to like it at all, Naruto-kun," Ayame didn't actually need to take Naruto's order, nor Kuro's, as both were usual customers of the stall, and even Kakashi to a certain extent was, for what it mattered. She also knew precisely where the black snake was, and even that it was a ramen eater. The first time she had seen it, she had obviously been startled, before fainting as the snake actually *apologized* for having scared her. Teuchi had taken the things in stride, one more ramen-eater? One more customer: it didn't matter that it had scales and no hands, and that it kept its mouth inside the bowl until it had emptied it. A customer was a customer.

"I'm just trying to find a non-offensive place for it that at the same time makes it clear I don't actually enjoy having it," Naruto muttered, staring at it with his right hand, "and Kuro, obviously, doesn't want to eat it."

"I am not a trashcan," Kuro hissed, "and how can you display it from my stomach, huh?"

"Well…I could, you know, show you from my right sleeve and you could open your mouth?" As Naruto said that back, Kakashi sighed, so much for Sensei's plan to *convince the boy to love and enjoy the academy*, he knew it was bound to fail no matter what, but it did fail miserably.

"Why don't you tie it on your fist?" Ayame actually suggested, clenching her small right fist in a sort of punch, "you show it off and can punch it against a wall when you want to, or against *Konoha's enemies* when you need to act like a good boy."

Naruto stared at Ayame for a long, silent minute. Kakashi actually thought he was about to strike at her like a snake does with a mice, and even Teuchi stared at the eyes of the boy, growing wider with…happiness.

"You're a genius Ayame-san!" with that, Naruto tied the headband to his right wrist, before trying to make it naturally move downwards to his knuckles, and then bring it back up to his wrist.

"Perfect! I've got metal knuckles!" He muttered once more.

"Typical, oh, look, a mouse!" Kuro exclaimed, staring at a small rodent on the side of the road, before dashing off with a speed that made him look only like a black blur, before jumping back on Naruto's shoulders, the mouse slowly being crushed and crunched by the snakes powerful mouth muscles.

"No matter how many times I see it…I still find it disgusting," Ayame muttered, slightly green, as her father just about finished the orders for the customers.

"I am disgusted when someone eats vegetables…but I don't go and speak of *if Kami gave us fangs, then he wanted us to eat meat*, right?" Kuro replied, his blue iris staring straight at Ayame, who shook her head.

"That's a diet! I've put on weight, with all the ramen there is around…" she pouted, making Naruto chuckle.

"You're not fat Ayame-chan! Kakashi-sensei is!" with that, the silver-haired Jounin looked lightly annoyed at the boy.

"I am *not*, where do you see the fat, huh?"

"Under your mask sensei," Naruto replied, shrugging, as he added, "you see, he has really puffy cheeks, and enormous lips, he stores half his bodyweight under his mask and…"

"Well, now that would explain everything," Ayame replied back to the boy, "I did indeed think it was something like that, albeit to have that much fat…"

"I do *not* have fat under my mask, does this seem like a fat face!" as Kakashi lowered his mask, Naruto's grin grew wider, as Ayame's eyes sparkled at the real face of the silver-haired Jounin.

"You…you got me," Kakashi raised his masks once more… "I'm no longer the mysterious ninja now…I'm just another closet pervert who reads perfectly well-written porn."

"Come on Hatake-san, you know it was just a matter of time…" Kuro muttered, as his face slowly drifted out, with a satisfied expression, from the ramen bowl.

"Yeah, yeah…" Kakashi muttered, as he lowered his shoulders and proceeded to finish eating his ramen. They got through the first seven bowls with ease, Kuro and Naruto, and afterwards, as the spiked blond boy recollected his snake-partner, paid, and turned to leave, a thought crossed his mind.

"Kakashi-sensei…now with the ninja missions I won't be able to go poison-gathering…"

"We could make it a week-end activity! Like camping," Kakashi replied with a chuckle, "I did enjoy the time spent training with you, Naruto-kun: it was definitively more relaxing than anything else."

"Well, then I'm off Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto replied, a wide smile on his face, as he waved goodbye to both the silver-haired Jounin and the two stall vendors.

That's when he turned around to leave, only to find a really angry Minato staring at him. Before he could say anything, before he could even query the reason, he felt the pain of having his chakra cut off, and he fell down on the ground, as the only thing he could hear, in the back of his head, was a…

"Sensei!"

Naruto woke up feeling light-headed, his throat parched, and his head spinning as he barely focused the colors around him. Now the only problem was realizing where he was, as the things he saw around him where a bit strange. It was a clear white walled structure, with a glass panel on one side, and a metallic door on the other. He was, also, for lack of a better term, tied up, and he could feel something in his system making its course, making him see colors in the otherwise perfectly white room. He could hear various noises, the effect of a hallucinogen probably, and he couldn't feel the familiar slithering of the snakes that used to wrap around his body. He hoped they were all fine…

When his surroundings finally came to focus, he felt the need to chuckle, it was an interrogation room, he had been brought there once, behind the glass panel was a room for the people to see inside. Right now, one of the stationed ninjas would go and call for his interrogator, but still he thought why he had been called in. Was it because he had given a piece of teaching to all those damn arrogant people that insulted his Anko-Oneechan? Breaking bones and tearing muscles wasn't a capital offense. They did the same thing to him too when he was younger, why not give back the same pain, the same medicine? He recalled his methods, to find the flaws in his plan. Kuro's poison was a paralyzing one, he would slowly open the ninjas window, disabling the traps, then the snake would slither silently, in the dark of the night, his black scales made him nearly invisible, towards the enemy's neck, then he would bite them on the head, not on the neck, or in another usually visible place, in the neck, among the hair. It took a couple of seconds more to be effective, and sometimes, well, sometime brain damage was to be expected, but it didn't matter to him. Then Naruto's turn arrived, as he slowly moved in, doing his job with his combat knifes, enhanced with wind nature. Like a medic. He was training to be a nice medical-nin, so that C wouldn't be worried about him. He needed to train on someone, however, and there were really few people who would teach him, basically, he grabbed what Anko-Oneechan told him about the human body, and then…then he taught himself through sectioning the Jounins and the Anbus, cutting muscles, breaking bones, but never touching the organs: he still wasn't ready to work on them, he needed more…practice…his *other* sensei told him that.

To him, it wasn't at all an evil thing. He would have gladly trained under a Konoha's medic-nin, if any of them had been at the very least willing to speak to him without scorn in their voice. They never suspected him, never found the snake marks, never saw anyone, and especially they would have never thought a simple minded Genin, no matter how skilled, would be more deadly and silent than Anbu-class ninjas. Heck, their security in their barracks was pitiful, he had no doubt he could enter them while being fully dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit, while yelling out loud his hate for the Hokage.

At least…*those* guys, of whom he no longer had heard anything, *those* guys knew how to hide, how to make passageways crumble on the wrong step, how to hide their tracks. Anbu's, the *best of the best* was made of a lot of weak guys.

The door slowly slid open, as Inoichi Yamanaka entered the room, followed by Ibiki Morino.

"Morino-san…hehe, you've got a nice bandana! I love the color." Naruto muttered, his words lingering in his throat, it was pleasant to talk, he realized, it was probably the effect of whatever drug he had been subjected to.

"I tell you the brat wouldn't have done it, Inoichi-san...Anko's too fond of the kid, she basically speaks of nothing else at work…" as Ibiki said that, the Yamanaka shrugged.

"It's always the quiet ones, anyway, the *Crocodile Tears* should be at its peak course, so let's ask anyway…" as Inoichi said that, turning to the boy, who was even drooling a bit to the side of his mouth, the blond haired interrogator queried, with a distinctively annoyed tone, "have you stolen the scroll of forbidden jutsus from the Hokage's office?"

"I want nothing to do with the damn bastard," Naruto replied, grinning widely, "I'd burn him alive if I could, Kuro could bite him up his ass, I'm sure…"

"Yeah…loyalty a bit on the low, huh?" Inoichi turned his gaze to Ibiki, who shrugged.

"Boy's got it tough, basically kidnapped from Kumo, you know that too, still doesn't mean anything if you can't get a straight answer."

"Yeah, yeah, now then, Naruto-kun…did you steal the scroll from the Hokage's office?" as Inoichi queried that again, Naruto shook his head.

"N-nah, I hate the guts of the guy, don't want to see him, nor go in his office…hehehe, you've got golden hair, goldilocks."

"Well…" Inoichi was slightly pissed at the goldilocks reference, but the boy *did* seem to have lost it to the poison, so it wasn't like he could possibly lie.

"See, told you…*goldilocks*" Ibiki snickered at the nickname.

"So his alibi of being with Kakashi-san the entire time is valid?" Inoichi queried.

"He knows the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, and it can fool even the Byakugan…he didn't immediately meet the copy-cat ninja, so we can't have that as an alibi, unluckily for the brat, and for us." Ibiki replied.

"Why also for us?" Inoichi muttered.

"His *Oneechan* is in another room, interrogating someone, how do you think she's going to be when she realizes we had to go through all the basic procedures, to prove he isn't lying?" as Ibiki pointed that out, Inoichi frowned, before recollecting the thought.

"We can't read in his mind, because it's a breach of the alliance contract…so we have to go through the first five steps of the torture procedure…" he actually paled, staring at the boy, "Anko-san is going to kill us."

"Yeah…I'll get the tools and lock the door, and I'll tell someone to keep her busy."

"Don't you dare take three hours, Ibiki-san: you're getting half of her wrath, I've got family to see at the end of the day, got it?"

As Ibiki nodded, he closed the door, poor brat. He moved along the white walled corridors of the interrogation department, firstly reaching into the adjacent room, where the Hokage stared lost in thoughts at the scene of the boy, getting prepared for the *second step* in the torture routine.

"Hokage-sama, the boy's probably clean." Minato turned around, nodding, but then shaking his head, with a slightly sorrowful gaze.

"We have to make sure, after all Mizuki-san spoke clearly of having seen him head towards my office, and leave later on with the scroll, and there are only a few people who can actually enter my office without problems," as he pointed that out, Ibiki nodded.

"Still…why send him through the torture routine?"

"Because he is to be treated like an adult, the moment he puts the headband on. He's got no alibi, so he's a liability, and he needs to be thoroughly checked…you heard him speak about what he thinks of me...it could all be a ruse to get to me in the end."

"If you say so, Hokage-sama…it's a first however, usually the age of those that get the torture routine are between their twenties. We simply don't have the correct dosages for an eleven-year old physique."

"He's perfectly able to handle a twenty-year's dosage, Ibiki-san. Now, do go and keep Anko-san away from the room." Ibiki nodded, leaving, he didn't like it, but it was his job. He was sure Anko wasn't, at all, going to forgive either him or Inoichi…he'd better buy snake traps.

As Ibiki heard the yells of pain from the boy, in the corridor, he winced. It had to be the third step in the torture procedure. The first was just a light *tongue-melt*, it made it nice, and easier, to talk. Usually there was no need to go through any other steps. The second was a dose of a truth serum that would leave the boy with a heavy headache, tomorrow. The third step was the pain step…with both the previous poisons in the body, a third one would send jolts of pain and spasms to the muscles, increasing the pain the more the time went by. The fourth step was the physical pain, cuts on the cheeks, on the forehead, on the places it would hurt, but do no lingering damage. The fifth was psychological, and if one went through all of that then usually he'd be clean. If need was there, there were a total of twenty more steps…all that could be avoided with a mind-dive by Yamanaka, who, however, couldn't because of the Kumo alliance's points. Something meant to protect the boy, was actually doing him more harm than good.

He entered the room where Anko was silently jolting down the confession between spasms of the ninja in front of her, who had been accused of nearly murdering a civilian: he did have the attenuating circumstance of having gone through the third shinobi war, and being thus a war veteran, with battle scars, both outside and in the soul... still, he did try and kill someone, only because he thought he was a Iwa ninja.

She finished jolting it down, and then, since Ibiki wanted to speak to her, she exited with him, leaving the culprit in care of another Ninja.

"I'm hearing someone's yelling," Anko muttered, the walls were paper-thin, so that one could hear the highly pitched screams and increase the tension in the rooms, making it easier to nab confessions, "whose taking care of the poor sod?" as they began walking further away from the screams, she wondered why Ibiki needed her.

"I am, with Inoichi, in room thirty-two."

"Two big-shots like you? What did the bastard do?" Ibiki repressed the urge to tell her she was insulting her *blond ticket out of hag-hood*.

"He's suspected for having stolen the forbidden jutsus scroll from the Hokage's office, and there's an eyewitness who saw him enter and then leave the office with the scroll…but he's got an alibi, and we're verifying it."

"Strange," Anko muttered, "why are you torturing him before verifying the alibi?"

Ibiki coughed for a moment, before saying, in his best neutral as possible way.

"His alibi could have been faked with a Bunshin…until it's verified we have to hold onto the Chuunin-sensei's eyewitness, since the other is just a Genin."

"Yeah, speaking of Genin's," Anko grinned, "today's the day my aniki gets his Konoha's headband, and then, tonight, it's ramen!" Yeah…Ibiki was thankful that all the years in the interrogation department had made his face impossible to read, because otherwise, he'd have probably told her how improbable that would have been.

"Oh, the brat…Naruto, right?"

"Don't call him brat!" Anko pouted, "He's quiet and good mannered, and he's always doing what his Anko-Oneechan tells him, yeah, I've got to buy him a gift for his graduation, I suppose…" as the purple haired Kunoichi began thinking about what to give as a gift to the boy, Ibiki looked at the watch. Inoichi should have finished by then…he hoped.

"What did you want to talk about, by the way?" As Anko queried that, Ibiki coughed, once more.

"Damn, that cough is going to get you…have you turned into another Hayate-san?"

"No, I suppose I'll be fine, there's no way someone could become like Hayate-san," Ibiki replied, as he looked towards the hall he had brought Anko in, where there were coffee and snacks machines, and the coffee was obviously free of charge.

"So, you wanted to grab a coffee with this beautiful *Anko-chan* huh? Why not say that sooner," as Anko grabbed a cup, as did Ibiki, Inoichi entered the hall with an angered face, pointing at Ibiki, before looking at Anko near him, and just as the purple haired Kunoichi waved at him, he took a step back, earning a frown on her face.

"You said you wouldn't take three hours!" he said, pointing at Ibiki.

"What's the problem Inoichi?" Anko queried perplexed.

"I think I'm being called." Ibiki said, moving towards the exit, but the firm grip of Anko on his shoulder stopped him.

"Well, he's innocent, as he kept saying he didn't do it, even after five steps in the torture routine," Inoichi pointed that out, taking another step back, as Anko's eyes narrowed.

"Yeah, Ibiki-san spoke of the Genin, so what's the reason for all this fear, huh? You didn't do a mind dive, so he had to be either really strong or quite a bastard," Anko queried, as Ibiki, gulping and heavily sweating, whispered…

"Well…it was the Hokage's orders…and there's a treaty with Kumo." Anko took a moment to connect the dots. Kumo's treaty could, at most, be valid for one person only…her face turned pale, before transforming into one of pure anger, as she dashed, not wanting to believe it, towards the room where Inoichi had been. By the time she reached it, the door was slightly open, and as she slowly opened it completely, she cringed, knowing deep down that her worst fears had become reality.

Naruto lay there, his face already healing from the wounds suffered on his chin, his cheeks and his neck. His wrists had been tied with iron manacles, and his right and left arm had the typical signs of needles, as he stood there, his eyes' white slightly showing, Anko slowly moved closer to him, slowly hugging the boy to her, as she began sobbing.

"Oneechan…I…didn't…" he whispered, "sorry…" he added, before finally giving in to the sleep he needed, as his brain couldn't take any more pain, or suffering.

Anko grabbed the boy with both her arms, and holding him tightly, moved to exit, just to see the Hokage actually coming towards the room, probably to look at the result of his handiwork, no doubts, with Ibiki and Inoichi behind him.

She stared at the man with the angriest stare and killing intent she could muster, which was more than enough to make the Hokage, at the very least, flinch.

"Until I release him, he's still a probable culprit, Anko-san," the fourth Hokage muttered, as the purple-haired woman snapped back.

"He's innocent alright! And you're a damn fucker and a bastard, and you know that! Why did you do this to him, huh! What the hell did he do to earn this! He's barely a kid! A KID! You'd do this to your own frigging daughter? No! But since it's *HIM* you'd do it, right? You're doing this just because it's him!"

"Anko-san, calm down, he's the Hokage," Ibiki muttered, "and it's not because of him being…a Jinchuuriki, you know."

Anko would have killed Ibiki, and the Hokage, on the spot, but she had something more precious within her arms, and she sure as hell didn't want to lose him to those fuckers and those bastards.

"With you and Inoichi I'll speak later, can he leave now, *Hokage*?" as Anko snarled that, the Hokage nodded, not saying a word as the kunoichi kept her fast stride, dashing out of the building.

"She still had three hours of work to do, today," Inoichi pointed that out only when the lingering killing intent in the corridor died down.

"I'll take them…I feel I'd be safer in here doing overwork than outside," Ibiki muttered.

*That night*

Naruto groggily opened his eyes, as the first thing he actually felt was warmth. There was the usual slithering mass of snakes around him, and Kuro was staring with his blue eyes, that had clear and unstoppable anger in, at Naruto. He obviously wasn't angry at the boy. He was angry the boy had given them all the order that, if he were to fall down unconscious, they'd run for their lives instead of protecting him. He understood that the one who came before him, a certain Shiro, so much for name originality, had kicked the bucket in a bad way, but that didn't mean they would suffer his same fate! They were snake-nins, not apartment snakes!

"You're an idiot." Kuro hissed, as he slowly slithered away, to where Anko was, as she had fallen asleep sitting on a chair, near the bed Naruto was in, her hands clenching tightly the right one of the boy, like he was her life anchor. Kuro slowly moved on the purple-haired kunoichi, and then gently tapped her cheek with the tip of his tail, swiftly *jumping* in a spring-line manner back on Naruto's lap, who had in the meantime gotten to a sitting position.

Anko firstly opened her eyes, then rubbed them, letting go of Naruto's hand in the process, and finally she hugged the living hell out of the boy, who gasped, feeling still the lingering pain in all of his muscles.

"Oneechan!" Naruto exclaimed, wincing in slight pain, gritting his teeth not to scream.

"Naruto! I'm sorry, so sorry! I didn't know! I'd have brought you out of there in an instant!" to hell with being branded a Nuke-nin, "I'm sorry…can you forgive me?" as Anko's eyes were watery, Naruto stared puzzled at the woman. Her eyes were already red, so she had already cried before. Was he the one at fault?

"It's not your fault…Oneechan. I'm sorry I made you cry." Naruto whispered, trying to return the hug, his arms weren't in top shape at the moment.

"You Baka: Baka, Baka, and once more Baka. If you say you're sorry once more I'll hit you in the head, got it?" as Anko muttered that, ruffling the boy's hair, Naruto silently muffled an *okay*.

"Now, what happened? Say everything to your Oneechan so I know who I have to kill later on," as Anko whispered that, she didn't let go of the boy.

"Killing is bad Oneechan…" Naruto muttered, "You shouldn't kill for me."

"Aw…then I'll kill for myself." Naruto slowly nodded, not knowing how to counter-argument said claim, and so he briefly spoke of what had happened, as the various poison's effect, barring a pulsing headache, slowly drifted away.

"…well, I'll forgive you for having *me* and my subordinates slither through the dirt of Konoha's streets to get back here," Kuro muttered, "But next time, we bite the hell out of those two…right younglings?" the other snakes hissed their consent to the matter, as Naruto would have smiled, if it weren't for the headache.

"Well, you clearly need a good night of rest, Naru-chan." Anko said, pushing the boy back down, "You get some more sleep, I'll get you something warm to gulp down…porridge, maybe."

"Oneechan…you can't cook anything except rice and scrambled eggs." As Naruto pointed that out, trying to get back up, Anko kept him down.

"Stay put, boy. Tomorrow you've got team assignments, you know?" Naruto groaned, yeah, it was going to be one hell of a day…and depending on the case he might just as well murder someone.

"Oneechan, I trust you…remember not to use sugar…" Naruto muttered, as he closed his eyelids, to try and get a quick nap.

"Using sugar instead of salt? I don't cook that badly!" Anko snapped, before going to the small kitchen corner, there was something however that was making her perplexed, just how did Kuro manage to slither till her shoulder unnoticed and without her feeling him do that? She was a trained Anbu-class ninja and he…he was just a snake…

She didn't bother much, until she felt an all too familiar set of hisses, coming behind her. She turned around just in time to see Naruto, a kunai at his throat, and a masked Anbu holding him with a wide grin.

"Now, now, be nice and let the boy go." Anko growled, as the snakes slowly tried to slither near him.

"Call your pet back, you snake whore, before I slash the fox demon out of existence." As the Anbu moved close to the window, she stiffened, why was she stiffening? She never stiffened: she usually acted easily as the normal Anko that never, ever, stiffened. Yet, as the Anbu held her…brother? Precious one in a kind boy who understood her? She realized just how much it meant to her not losing him. Sure, she had lost her teammates to that damn bastard of Orochimaru, her parents had died years before, and Kurenai was her friend, but she wouldn't have stiffened for Kurenai, or Kakashi, or Asuma or anyone else…but the boy, she couldn't risk losing the boy. The snakes slowly slithered back, at her command, all except Kuro, who was nowhere to be seen.

"My, you actually did that? Seems like you're just a whore, a fox whore however…" with that, the Anbu jumped out of the window, "don't follow, or he dies!" with those words, the masked ninja began running towards the forest, where he knew, a certain Katsumi was training hard on the forbidden jutsus.

He had been called to answer if he was certain the boy was the culprit, and Mizuki had cursed the fact they hadn't simply believed his word over that of the demon boy, but then, the solution. Katsumi-chan, that damn idiot of a Hokage's daughter, had more than gladly given him the information he needed: the house of the demon, all in exchange for a chance at a special *secret test* to pass and become a Genin. She had actually believed him, and right now, he was running with the fainted, obviously because of the tortures he had been subjected to, demon, to here Katsumi was. He'd kill her, give the bloody kunai in the demon's hands, and then drop the anbu mask on him, it would all turn out as a plot from the boy with Kage Bunshins to help him out in getting alibis, and nobody would *ever* suspect him!

As Mizuki reached the small meadow, he bit his lower lip: Iruka obviously had reached the red-haired girl before him. A pity…he'd have to kill them both.

As he dropped the boy on a higher branch, he turned around, with a smirk. The snake woman hadn't actually followed him! The bitch really cared for the demon! How amusing!

He launched forward a volley of shurikens, smirking as Iruka had just enough time to push Katsumi down, before he himself descended.

Meanwhile, Naruto opened both his eyes, blood-red.

_He said it, didn't he?_

**Oh that he did.**

_Nobody insults my Oneechan._

**Yup, nobody does that.**

"Boss," Kuro hissed in whisper, appearing from the back of his shirt, "he didn't realize I was here. He's a weak chuunin probably…and he did insult the Oneechan. He's no anbu."

Naruto said nothing, but nodded, as Kuro slid into his own position, curling around Naruto's right arm. It was time.

The boy slowly got on his feet, the pain of the past hours of the interrogation still taking their toll.

Slowly, his muscles relaxed, as a vile foul chakra covered and repaired the nasty effects of the poisons, returning everything as it was before. With a hardened gaze, Naruto slowly knelt in position, before making a straight dash forward, to follow Mizuki's and Iruka's battle, while Katsumi was running.

In the end, even Iruka couldn't run anymore, too wounded to do anything. Naruto could have intervened, before, but he needed to make sure he wouldn't be interrupted. He wanted to have some fun with Mizuki…some training, maybe he'd touch the organs this time?

Maybe he would.

"Why do you protect that girl? Don't you know she's just a spoiled brat!" Mizuki yelled, pointing his kunai straight in front of Iruka.

"No, that's not true, she's a hardworking student, I saw the bruises on her hands every day as she tried to understand Taijutsu, I saw how battered she was while trying her best at the Ninjutsu, she never gave up…I'm proud of having her as a student."

"Yet you failed her anyway, you hypocrite? Only because her father sealed the Kyuubi, instead of killing it? You would have wanted revenge right? Instead all you got was seeing the Kyuubi go unscathed transformed into a boy! A boy you even had to teach!" Mizuki chuckled.

"Mizuki! Have you gone mad! She would have just died without being able to produce a workable Bunshin! The rest doesn't matter!" Naruto rolled his eyes, when were they going to finish it? Katsumi stood in a corner, hidden behind a tree, trembling slightly. He could actually go over there, give her a quick chop on the back of the neck, and be done with it…he could, but he wanted to play with some organs.

"It won't matter after tonight: I'll kill you, I'll kill her, and then I'll frame the demon brat, and I'll come off as the Hero who brought back the forbidden jutsus scroll!"

Naruto had actually enough of waiting: he was just about calculating the distance when…

"Stop!" Katsumi yelled, standing up from her hiding place. Why did she have to yell? Couldn't she, just…hit him in the back with a kunai?

"My, there she is!"

"I won't let you harm Iruka-sensei! Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" with that, Naruto frowned. He would have scowled, but he wasn't an Uchiha. The girl had to learn the only technique he had, obviously, since she had wanted to know it from him, but he had refused her, and she actually had the chakra, or the guts, to use a higher number variant? Well…he waited, as he saw the hundreds of red-haired twin-tails attack the chuunin, through sheer numbers and not technique, hitting him until he lost consciousness, dispersing one by one and leaving a trembling, and nearly on the verge of collapsing, Katsumi.

"I…I did it, Iruka-sensei." She muttered, as she fell on the side, fainting from the overuse of chakra. Iruka slowly got up, to move closer to the girl, and, in that moment, Naruto jumped down.

Iruka saw the boy walking forward and it took him a minute to understand why he was here: probably he had been beaten up by Mizuki and brought there to be framed, but had freed himself.

"Naruto-kun… Are…you fine?" Iruka queried, staring at the boy's eyes, red, with slits like the Kyuubi. The same murderous intent he had felt that day, months before, in the classroom.

"No thanks to Konoha's interrogation department." As he said that, from his right arm a black snake darted forward, his maws extended and wide, as its mouth closed around Mizuki's face, pulling him back and into Naruto's open palm.

"You framed me…You're the reason my Oneechan cried," Naruto muttered, staring at Mizuki's fainted face, as Iruka's eyes shot forward in surprise, what was the boy going to do then, was something that the chuunin sensei would have thought more befitting of…Orochimaru, "Kuro Sen'eijashu!" Kuro darted forward from Naruto's sleeve, the Ninjato that Kakashi had gifted the boy, while he was in the hospital, sprouted from his tongue, enhanced with wind ability to pierce strongly, and as the snake passed straight through the man's neck, Naruto's left hand touched Mizuki's body, as electricity sparkled charring the chuunin to a near-unrecognizable state.

"Raiton: Electromagnetic Murder, Naruto's Execution variant!" there were no yells, but gurgles of pain and spasms, as Iruka tried his best not to puke at the scene of Mizuki's body, then, as Kuro re-ingurgitated the chakra metal Ninjato, slithering back into Naruto's sleeve, the boy with a kick removed Mizuki's head from his body.

"Now I say I can play with his organs for a while, might learn something."

Iruka paled, as he slowly grabbed Katsumi and made a few step backwards.

"Iruka-sensei," Naruto's voice was calm, quiet, tranquil, even nice, as he spoke, "Konoha is that way."

"Ah…yeah, you're right Naruto-kun." Iruka nervously laughed, as he dashed towards Konoha.

The boy was worse than mad…even with all his wounds, Iruka deemed it safer to die by blood loss in Konoha, then remain in the meadow where Naruto was sectioning the corpse of Mizuki.

He shivered, thinking that there was only one solution in his mind, to solve most of the problems.

*Next day*

Anko had stayed up all night, outside of the Hokage's office, waiting to know just what was going to happen to her little brother. The fact that he had woken up, and then defeated Mizuki in a most gruesome way wasn't what bothered her. It was Iruka's claims that not even Orochimaru would have been that wicked. What did they know about her young brother? What the hell did they think? Obviously he would be pissed at the man who framed him! Though there was a bit of pride in her mind, thinking that he did it just to avenge her. Finally, the door of the Hokage's office opened, and Naruto came out, smiling at Anko.

"Anko-Oneechan! They say everything's fine…and that I must get to school in time for the team assignments!" Anko managed to hug Naruto tightly once, before the boy *dashed* towards school, leaving the purple haired woman to face the Hokage, and as both stared at each other, the question in the woman's mind was pretty clear.

_What punishment did you give him, you bastard?_

"It seems that, since he's a Genin now, an adult, he would like to start living alone once more." The words hit her like daggers, but she said nothing.

_Bullshit! That's bullshit! So that's his punishment, huh!_

"The techniques he used, were techniques he learned by mimicking your actions, and while we were fine to let him run along, the actions of last night cannot be, at all, *undone*, he risks becoming mentally unstable, if this continues," the Hokage spoke slowly, keeping a neutral tone.

_YOU FUCKING PRICK OF A FRIGGING BASTARD! You kidnapped him! You forced him through shit! It's obvious he's going nuts!_

"That is why you will tell him that he's to go back to his old apartment, for his own good, and stop any contact with you, from now on, if it will not happen soon," Now Anko faced at the Hokage with her mouth slightly open, "Then I am sorry to say the separation will have to be brought forward through force…you are still, after all, Orochimaru's…"

"Ex-student," Anko snapped, "Ex-student, and I never taught him anything that bastard taught me, I don't know how, or when, but I didn't, I swear I didn't, have Inoichi sweep my mind, he'll prove it."

"Can't do that, he's your colleague, he might lie to save your skin…at the moment, you are not under trial, Mitarashi-san, but that…can change." Anko wanted to spit on the man's face, she really wanted to.

"Why don't you tell that he has to leave me by yourself, Hokage-sama?"

"Because he already *hates* me," the Hokage replied with a small chuckle, what was there to laugh about? The Hokage had turned nuts, that was what was going on, "but he certainly won't hate you, he *trusts* you, doesn't he?"

"…who told you that?" Anko's eyes narrowed.

"A little bird," Minato replied his gaze narrowing, "this is a secret S-rank mission, Anko Mitarashi. You will be highly paid just for completing it. Think about the money you can make…or the dangos you can eat."

"…you'd sell that boy out to the world for money?" Anko was thinking if murdering the yellow flash of Konoha was going to make it, to calm her anger…did he really think she didn't actually like the boy, love him like a little brother? Did he…

"Separate yourself from him, that is an order, or do you prefer being executed on the spot?" The tone was cold, and dark, Anko knew it wasn't a joke, or a threat…it was a promise.

"Get the money ready then." She muttered, turning around. She'd put it in a bank and give it to Naruto one day, without even touching a ryo of it…it would be too filthy money for her.

As Anko left, from the Hokage's office a bandaged man, with only one visible eye, came out, followed by a small masked Anbu, no more than eleven years old too.

"Bird, go and reestablish the Root operatives," as Danzo muttered that, the boy nodded before disappearing.

"Danzo-san, you'd better keep your part of the deal," the Hokage muttered, staring at the man.

"Do not worry, Hokage-sama, I am glad you finally saw reason and came to me. I will have the boy turn to love the leaf in a matter of months, and he won't even realize it." With those words, the old man crept away. Well, Monster-kun would return to the nest. A pity he wouldn't be only his, but he had to make a compromise somewhere…

Naruto, on the other hand, reached school just in time to sit down, and wait the team announcements. Neither Iruka-sensei, who was sick, nor Mizuki-sensei, who was *undisposed* albeit Naruto chuckled at that, a chuckle that didn't go unnoticed by Shino, who said nothing, however.

"Team 7 will be Sakura Haruno, Katsumi Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and their team leader will be Kakashi Hatake…" as the announcer said that, unknown to them, Sasuke actually sighed in relief. He'd rather run all the way to Suna and turn a missing nin, rather than even go as close as being in the same team as *that* monster.

"Team eleven will be made of Naruto Uzu…" the announcer stopped, gulping before going along, trying to ignore the killing intent radiating from the room, "Sai, and Yakumo Kurama," murmurs in the class, as the last two hadn't even been mentioned in class, ever before, "their sensei will be Kushina Uzumak…" another wave of killer intent waved through the class, as Shino actually had to calm his own bugs from running away, and Kiba whined to the *boss* to stop it, as Akamaru had peed himself twice already…in his jacket.

"…it's been a pleasure. Wait for your senseis here." With that, the unnamed Jounin-sensei dashed away, just as the classroom slowly emptied, as everyone came to pick their respective *brats*.

The only difference was Naruto, who waited in there, together with Team 7's teacher, who was late.

Naruto chuckled, grinning to himself as he thought Kakashi was going to throw a fit if he didn't already throw it before, reading the names of the students he had been assigned to.

Katsumi placed a board eraser on the door, pouting that their sensei was being late.

_He'll always be late…but I ain't telling you that. _

"Naruto-kun," his thoughts were interrupted, when Katsumi actually moved close to the boy, who stared back at her, "where you the one who came to help me and Iruka-sensei?" as she queried that, her bright blue eyes stared deeply into the boy's dark blue, they should have been the same color, but one had never seen hatred, and difficulties, the other had seen much already to scar his soul.

"What if?" Naruto had thought she had fainted…maybe one of her hundred's clones had seen him in the corner of an eye?

"Thank you," she said with a smile, as Sakura stared her face pale at what the girl was doing, she was thanking the monster who had no qualms in hitting girls!

Naruto's right eyebrow shot forward in surprise, why thank him?

"You did most of the job." He pointed that out.

"But you came because you were worried about me, right? So you care for your cousin! And I'm sure I'll see you around, if Kaa-san is your team leader, you might even have training in our home's training grounds! And…"

In the blink of an eye, Naruto's right arm shot forward, a bunch of snakes, one after the other holding the other's tail, dashed forward, the last one grabbing the board eraser just in time for Kakashi to avoid taking it, albeit voluntarily, on the head, then the snakes retracted back into his sleeve, as the chalkboard stood in Naruto's hand.

Naruto's gaze turned to Katsumi, and he simply muttered.

"Your sensei has arrived, Uzumaki-san."

"Yoh!" Kakashi muttered, raising his right hand, he had wanted to act not too seriously, because he actually was already hating this group of Genins. There was a fan-girl, a troublemaker, and a probable murderer…he was going to make them fail so bad…if only Sensei's daughter hadn't been in the bunch he wouldn't have even come there with *only* three hours of lateness. He'd have come by dusk.

Sasuke actually smirked, hoping to catch a glimpse of envy from Naruto's face, as they were going to get *his* previous private teacher. Instead, he actually saw him slightly chuckle.

"Sensei! You're late!" Katsumi and Sakura both yelled at the teacher, who turned to face them.

"You told them nothing, right?" as Kakashi queried towards Naruto, the boy shrugged.

"I'm telling you…they're going to fail it." Naruto muttered, shaking his head, "and if they don't…well, I'll start reading Icha-Icha."

"Damn, I got the sucky bunch of Genins." Kakashi muttered back, as Sakura stared perplexed between the silver-haired Jounin and Naruto, did the two know each other? And why would the Jounin trust the boy's words?

"Sensei! We're strong, don't listen to Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, receiving a *Yeah!* from Katsumi.

"Actually…I'd rather listen to him drunk than to you lot sober." As Kakashi said that, he waved at Naruto, who waved back, while the silver-haired Jounin moved out of the classroom, the three students following him with a perplexed expression. Sasuke simply had a scowl on his face, however.

Naruto remained alone, in the classroom, waiting. In the end, just as the clock turned to six o'clock in the afternoon, Kushina entered the classroom, in her Jounin sensei outfit.

Naruto got up, looking around, and behind her, expecting to see the rest of his team.

"Well, Naruto-kun! I'm sorry I'm late, really…I still had to grade the last exams of the year…" she said with a small smile, staring at the boy who simply walked down.

"Uzumaki-sensei," at least he acknowledged her as his teacher, "where is the rest of the team?"

"Oh…right, they all have *issues* but you'll meet with them tomorrow morning, training ground seven! Yeah, we'll start there our special training!" Naruto nodded, and then waited in silence. Kushina stood silent too, for what looked like half an hour, but probably no more than five minutes, as finally, Naruto raised his right eyebrow.

"Uzumaki-sensei, is there anything you wish to tell me?"

"Oh…no, it's just…" she had been lost in thoughts, looking at how her son had become in the years…she never did hold him as a mother when he was but an infant. She never saw him walk his first steps, she never saw him eat his first solid meal, hear him speak his first word, she lost a lot of first things with her son…but she wouldn't lose him to Kumo. She wouldn't lose him to a snake bitch, she wouldn't lose him to a cat bitch, and she wouldn't lose him to anyone…never again.

"Then may I leave? Anko-Oneechan is waiting for me for dinner now, I suspect…she might be angry I skipped lunch, waiting." Kushina clenched her fists, but then shook her head, no, everything was fine, and Minato had told her everything. The principal reason she was late was because she had to make sure her hands didn't hurt too much. Minato had told her about what happened with the chakra seals, he had told her what had happened with Jiraiya, the toad-sage that had dared *accuse* her of not loving her son enough, but she hadn't slipped, the sannin still thought it was Minato who had called favors on the Anbus around the border to intercept any Kumo letters. No, it was her. She had asked the favors, to make sure no Kumo bastard would ever get his grasp on his son, and he, the damn pervert, had managed to sneak a letter through! She had been livid with rage when she had known that. There, in the kitchen, she would have wanted to grab a kitchen knife and stab the sannin were he was. Why could nobody understand that she was just protecting her son from the evil world? Why?

"Yes," she forced herself to smile, "you can go Naruto-kun," as he left, Kushina knew, she had asked Minato to, after all, the red-haired Uzumaki knew that Naruto would go home to an empty apartment, with nothing more than a small slip of paper as a note, she knew, she had double checked before coming here, to make sure that snake whore left without a fuss, she had to make damn sure the note was appropriate, that nothing remained, and, expect powered instant ramen in a cupboard, nothing truly remained, and with that, she was sure that Naruto, her Naruto, would cry and come within her arms, she was his mother, he'd come and cry in her arms, and he'd hug him and tell him that everything would be fine, and that he'd always be loved by her, and she'd never, ever, leave him alone.

Naruto reached home, sure, he was angry that he'd ended up with his *mother*, but still he didn't know who the other two were, and thus maybe, maybe, they might turn out to be pleasant.

As he entered the apartment, he stared in surprise at how empty, empty, it was.

"Anko-Oneechan?" There was just his bed, no snakes, the storeroom was empty. No Couch-san. No Anko's bed, or *Anko-goodness*, no cheers, no noise, no cooking, nothing. There was just the small table and a note on it.

Naruto's right hand grabbed the note, hoping there was a good enough explanation for it, hoping it would explain that maybe, they had simply changed address and that he simply had to move elsewhere.

_Five months of rent are nearly over. The guy wants us both out, so you can go back to your old apartment: it's still there. It's been nice sharing an apartment with you. Don't bother looking for me, I'm well-hidden. Thanks again, see ya._

_Mitarashi Anko._

He fell on his knees.

He actually fell on his knees, strength being sapped away by something in the air, tears falling down his eyes as he clutched his chest. No, the message was a lie.

It had to be a lie.

He read it again, maybe he had misinterpreted something?

Maybe she was teasing him.

But then…why? Why accept being called Oneechan, why call him Aniki, why joke with him, why smile to him, why accept him, why, why, why? Why? WHY?

What did he do wrong? Was it the fox? Was it his eyes? Was it his face? Was it the snakes? No she loved the snakes, was it him being tortured? He had said he was sorry, was it him saying he was sorry? No, he could change, she just had to give him a chance, she could just talk to him and he'd change, no, why not look for her? Did she hate him? He shouldn't have killed Mizuki? He shouldn't have shown how a monster he was to Iruka and Katsumi? It was his fault, his fault, only his fault.

"Boss! BOSS!" Kuro's yell brought him back to reality, a reality where blood was gushing out of his clenched fists and bitten lips, a reality where there was no happy smiling Anko in the apartment, where there was no Anko at all around him.

"She's…she's gone…I was…just…misunderstanding…I…I thought…" just how much of a delusional could he be, it was obvious that she had never felt anything like friendship, or love, in his regards, she had simply taken her worth in money back, and then had left him, left him without a second thought.

"Boss…" Kuro slowly hissed near Naruto's ear, "you're being watched…there's snake pheromones in the ramen box," the hiss was little more than a whisper in the wind.

Naruto slowly stood up, and looked around the room once more. The only difference was the Instant powdered ramen that stood lonely on a shelf, still closed and sealed.

He slowly opened it, putting some water to boil in *his* only kettle, his right hand clenching tightly while he poured the powdered, and the frozen noodles, inside.

Without a word, he got to the side of the room, in the corner, to cry alone, and there, he slowly unwrapped the small slip of paper that had been put inside the box.

_H. forced A. leave. Secret or death A. Sorry._

This…this he could understand. He was no longer crying…tears were drying up, as he carefully re-read the message, as Kuro did too, before the black snake ate the only message that showed some glint of truth in all the matter.

The Hokage had forced Anko to leave, she had to be secret on it or she would have died. She was sorry for that.

The Hokage wanted to play at his back, placing him in the same team as Kushina, bringing him back to his old apartment? Fine…two could play the game of backstabbing.

As he stood up, the ramen ready, he threw it in the garbage bin, exiting the apartment and dashing towards the person he had met and that could help him…

*flashback-Two days in the hospital*

"You're looking for Medic-nin medicine books? Meh, look around in silence, if you find anything read it." The old hag didn't care about the bandaged boy to actually become a medic-nin or not, he was the demon of the fox, why care for his education? The Konoha's library had a lot of books, and it was also on a nice flat level, which Naruto, still slightly limping from the wounds on his back, that were healing, and that of his hand, could reach after having just so silently *escaped* the hospital. Anko-chan would have his head, he was sure of it, but still, he had to become stronger, so she wouldn't cry for him being wounded. As he slowly started to look at the books, his eyes actually lost in the enormous amount of titles, a boy with the leaf symbol came behind him, with a small smile, and a pair of round brown glasses.

"Can I help you, kid?" Naruto turned around, actually nodding at the young man.

"I was looking for…medicine books, for medic-nins, sir."

"My, what a polite little thing you are," as the young man said that, he added, "your dream is to become a medic, huh?"

"Well…my dream is to become the Raikage…but if I don't get strong, Anko-chan is going to keep crying when I get wounded," Naruto replied, to the young man who nodded, before grabbing a medic book, the easiest one he could find that wasn't overall for kids. If the boy was serious, it was good enough to start, if he wasn't, he'd stop.

"Oh, is Anko-chan your girlfriend?" he teased the boy, before connecting the dots on him saying that he wanted to be the *Raikage* and not the Hokage.

"No…she's my Oneechan." Naruto replied, slightly blushing as he whispered that.

"Oh well, wait…are you perhaps speaking of Mitarashi Anko?" as he queried that, the young blond spike-haired boy nodded.

"Yes, she does this cool trick with snakes…wish I could do it too." At that point…Kabuto was sold and bought. Orochimaru-sama was truly going to be pleased…

*flashback end*

He knocked at Kabuto's door, in a corner of Konoha's middle ground for houses, perfectly average, perfectly normal, nothing worth seeing or worrying about.

Kabuto opened the door, perplexed at seeing his young *pupil*, who he had taught some basics, but nothing more, look at him with a sort of hardened glare. It was kind of funny how he had just finished speaking with someone's whose glare was far worse than his, yet looked similar enough.

"Naruto-kun? What can I do for you?"

"Can we speak somewhere…private?" Naruto replied, in a silent wheeze, and, as Kabuto smiled, albeit narrowing his eyes, did the boy catch up on something? Maybe Anko actually told him something about Orochimaru's techniques, and he connected the two things…that the case, it would be a pity, but he'd have to kill the boy. No matter the case, a *private* place was needed.

"Follow me, you look like you saw the Shinigami," As Kabuto brought him down, into his house's cellar, that, by the way, had silencing seals on the door, and tables when he needed to…*operate* certain things, the boy nodded to the man…before whispering, in a hushed tone…

"I want help in killing a Kage."

Yes…Orochimaru-sama was going to be very, very, very, very, pleased.

*Meanwhile, In Kumo*

"Yugito-oneechan!" Naruto was once more there, on the bridge. On that damn frigging bridge with that damn red-haired whore. She couldn't survive seeing this shit of a nightmare again, she couldn't.

This time, however, Naruto hugged her, maybe it wasn't a nightmare. He hugged her, and no chains came this time, nope, no chains to take her little brother away. None at all.

No, an enormous looking snake emerged from the ground, chomping the boy in half, and as he bled to death he still smiled at her, closing his eyes while whispering, as always, as he always did…

"I'm sorry…"

Yugito opened her eyes, she damn hated sleep. She would have gone without forever, but all she could do was sleep, nothing more. She had a team now, three idiots of recently made Genins. For going to Konoha, only two bodyguards could be selected, the rest had to be Jounin-senseis. So, with B and Darui as the Raikage's bodyguard, she and C had to take a team. C was lucky, another sensei actually retired, and he took over his team, of brats who already had a year of experience as D-mission levels, and some C-missions levels.

What she got was three recently trained rookies, who could barely, and by barely it meant really barely, doing anything more than catching the Land of Lighting's Daimyo's dog.

She kind of thought if every Daimyo had some sort of animal that always escaped the grasps of the Daimyo's wife and had to be captured back every single time. Even Princess Yukie had similar missions, as she had taken a pet *chinchilla*… Yugito shivered at the thought of having to go knee deep in the snow, because the spring generator wasn't always used, to find a white furred damn thing no bigger than a foot. She swore she'd crush the thing, next time she'd see it.

"So, Raikage…we captured the beast once more," she had fallen asleep in the Raikage's office? She had fallen asleep halfway through, Matabi pointed out that without her there to catch her, and bring her all the way to the office by herself she would have looked silly.

**Really Cat…you should stop going without sleep.**

_It's always the damn dream…Matabi, it's always the damn dream…_

**I know it's hard Cat, but it's just a year more.**

_And then it's going to be three more._

**Come on…he's not going anywhere. We'll cuddle him to death when we see him next time.**

_Then we'll slap him to death._

**Then cuddle him.**

_But more slapping._

"Yugito Nii is desired in the Raikage's office!" A yelled, slamming his fist down on the desk, which brought the blond Nibi Jinchuuriki back to reality.

"Yes, Raikage-sama?"

"You are to go to Takigakure, the village hidden by a waterfall, and free it from the grasps of a group of bandits, passing by Otogakure, who has granted passage…got it?"

"…it will take a month or more of travel!" Yugito screeched, "And they're not ready for a B-level mission yet! It's at least that level, right?"

"Actually it's just C-level, by the time you arrive, they'll probably have already left the villages premises…doubt they'd do much in a month. You also have to bring them relief packages, which is the main bulk of the problem. Bring them supplies, guard them from bandits along the road, and fight the bandits in the village if there are any, got it?" Yugito nodded, as she left, followed by her three Genins…who were all too vocal in how cool it was going to be.

To her…it would be a nightmare. Maybe, however, she might go and come back, and be fast enough to grab Naruto's new letter, which he'd certainly write to her, once Jiraiya-san would come back from the land of fire…that she hoped.

**Author's notes**

**GAH. Didn't know where to stop the character again, I'd have kept writing, but then I'm sure you'd have gone all: "Wtf, 13K words already and still going? Is he a machine, a monster, or a man-made monster machine!" **

**That said, *let the drums sing*, the team's been done!**

**Who thought I'd do that, huh? (Well, except Sai, but Sai is actually *always* chosen if there's a need to *fill* a hole in a team). **

**Obviously Kurama *isn't* as per canon, in the sense that she's not all that physically weak, and she hasn't been forced to *die* per third Hokage's orders, as the fourth and Kushina solved the problem with seals, (obviously, damn bastard).**

**Q&A Time:**

**Tamult: well…why make him lose an apartment after a couple of days…when I can force him out after months? Did you guess correctly on who died?**

**Purpledemon43: Will do! ( I hope)**

**Rei: aye aye, if he had been, I'd have to write *attempted murder* scenes at every training exercise…**

**Batros940: He could have tried that, but Naruto would have refused. Naruto hates him and the *woman with red hair* he can't escape too, as it would force even Kumo (as they are in an alliance with Konoha) to track him down. And Sasuke got community service as a garbage collector! It's more than nothing…it's something! **

**SeigZeon: Well, now there's Kuro, who can even talk! …yeah, not the same, Shiro was fluffy, scaly and cute. Not a black python-like thing.**

**Ezcap1st: it was Kakashi, who bought the new apartment, to tell Kushina where the boy lived, as they both got to his apartment together.**

**Argentorum: You actually, kind sir, grabbed the character I thought nobody, at all, would realize I had planned to place in the team. (I gave a sort of foreshadowing when I spoke in the first chapter about the three Kumo shinobi graduates in Naruto's class, one of them being an expert in Genjutsu) if it turns out a love interest or not, we'll see.**

**Dragonskyt: I throw waterballons only if I want to get hit by elderly ladies. My aim is suicidal, meaning they fall back on my face. XD and Kiba isn't difficult to portray…he's just a sort of wolf mentality. **

**Narutoisdabomb: I know, but I preferred Samui there, so that I can use Mabui *elsewhere*.**

**Maleivius: are you using a spyglass? The storm is coming…and it's worse than saying *Winter Is Coming*.**

**IncludeyourBanana: I am, in no way, a man-made monster machine. No sir. Error 32, refuting option.**

**Mzr90: No, it's not Naruhina, and it probably won't no matter if half of Fanfiction decides to plead it to become one.**

**Angeldoctor: The Jinchuurikis are actually treated as Tools of war. Which means that Kumo, (with Minato's shrewd and bastardly way of *putting things*) has actually *leased* Naruto to Konoha for five years, and then the boy could either go back home, or stay in Konoha with *his family*. Instead of outright telling him that, Minato has simply pointed out how he was being used by Kumo, and how, in five years, he might be able to go back home…if he doesn't change his mind (fat chance). So, for those five years he's Konoha's responsibility, unless he becomes a Nuke-nin, which means it's Konoha's and Kumo's responsibility to catch him.**

**General answers:**

"**The team you chose sucks" = Live with It.**

"**What is the *Kuro* …" = suppose it's obvious, but it's just having Kuro (the snake) doing the same thing as normally a couple more snakes would do in the normal technique.**

…**and yeah, the Uzumaki family seems to be more psycho by the second. I, as the writer, admit that too. It wasn't in my intention, I swear, but after the initial push they just…just *became* that. …Two psychos and one blissfully ignorant Katsumi. **

…**I'm a monster…**

**And by the way…I'm imagining your faces at the end of the chapter, when you read just *who* is giving a back-spine to the boy.**

…

***sorry, can't, stop, chuckling*.**

**Read, Enjoy (I hope), Review (constructively, nicely, or in any way that you feel comfortable with that isn't outright flame), and wait for another update.**

**By the way…I don't know what's gotten into me…I'm writing too long chapters. **

…

**Meh.**


	11. Planning

Eleventh chapter

"A...Kage?" Kabuto couldn't decide wherever to throw his right fist in the air and exclaim something like *success*, or think it was all going too easily and that Anko was trying to make him slip. After all, why would the boy trust *him*, out of everyone else? Maybe it was because he seemed the wisest? Well, he was a bit happy to be put into such high regards, even by a boy who was looking at him with a serious gaze.

"Are you speaking about the…Hokage?" He couldn't believe the boy would be that stupid, really, being any normal leaf ninja, he'd have brought him immediately to the Hokage's office, possibly after having tied him up. Since he was, after all, Orochimaru's right hand man, and the one who had also given pointers to Naruto's exponential growth, he knew that *trying to tie him up* would equate for any normal Ninja of the leaf a nasty surprise. The boy wasn't *Genin* level. He was a misunderstood genius, like Kabuto himself was. Give him a book, and he'd memorize it in one day, coming back for an hour. He had once queried him on how he had managed that feat, but he had shrugged, saying that a hundred heads were better than one. Kabuto had nodded, until certain info had told him that the boy knew the technique of Kage Bunshins…and to produce a hundred more, well, that made the boy special, the fact he was the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, and he hated Konoha, were all plus that made Orochimaru actually *laugh* when Kabuto referred the news…

He'd probably send him home, acting like nothing happened, and then later on he'd test his predisposition, but the boy was full of surprises, because he shook his head.

"No, the Iwa one," now that, that made Kabuto perplexed. Why the Iwagakure one? Because they were enemies with his *real* father? Yes, Kabuto knew, it wasn't difficult to find out, blood tests, blood correlations, and access to hospital as he himself was a medic-nin in training, at least in Konoha, it was clear: the boy was the fourth's father. All data pointed to it except the simple admission of Minato Namikaze.

"Iwagakure's Hokage? Why him?" Kabuto made his thought known, it did surprise him.

"Kage's are the strongest. Iwagakure's Kage is said to be the second strongest. Because in first positions there are…"

"Minato Namikaze and A, respectively the Hokage and Raikage," Now he kind of thought he was following a pattern there, "So you wish to prove your strength, directly at the Kage's level?" for a late night joke, it was strangely pissing Kabuto off, but he acted with a smile, he had to fake it being a child's prank.

"No…if I do that, if I kill him off, both Konoha and Kumo would get benefits." So maybe it was about earning recognition from them…maybe it was about…getting his father to recognize him? The poor scrawny thing! Really, it could either be that, or in truth all that Naruto wanted was training to kill his father, it could go both ways, but he had been smart in his words, Kabuto would give him that. He was saying the truth, when he said that the Iwa Kage was his objective, he hadn't lied at all. He just wasn't saying everything…a cunning one, one that Orochimaru would like him among his ranks…if he could pass over Anko Mitarashi's dead body, that is.

"Well…but you're just a Genin now, so…isn't your Oneechan going to be angry at you, if you stay out so late at night?" as Kabuto queried that, Naruto's face turned sorrowful, so there *was* a reason he had been disturbed so late at night, and it had to involve good old *Anko*.

"She left…she said she didn't want to be with me anymore," as he whispered that, Kabuto actually stared at the boy for a moment…he wasn't lying…completely, but he wasn't either saying the truth. He believed some part of it was the truth, like her leaving, but some other part wasn't. Anko Mitarashi, for all her displayed happiness and that Kabuto knew, wasn't liked in Konoha after Orochimaru's defection. She was called the snake whore, the snake bitch, she had her own *pets* killed and suffered some slight anger from the Jounin and Anbu-class ninjas. Obviously nothing like the Jinchuuriki container, but still, she wouldn't discard someone else who shared her same sufferings like that, there had to be a reason she did that.

"Oh…I'm sorry Naruto-kun, I'm sure she had reason however," Naruto shook his head, clenching his fists.

"It doesn't matter. She left, I'm alone again, it happens. Life Happens. I want to become stronger Kabuto-san, I want to become so strong that nothing will stop me from achieving my dream…nothing and no-one." The gaze he showed was one that Kabuto actually appreciated: one sided determination, it was the easiest to turn around towards Orochimaru-sama's purposes, all one had to do was find the right moment, and then good became wrong and vice-versa.

"Well, then I can surely help you. How about we make our usually weekly night sessions become one day yes and one no?" as Kabuto said that, Naruto nodded, eagerly.

"Yes Kabuto-sensei!" Kabuto grinned, maybe having a *pupil* wouldn't be so bad.

"Well, for tonight I think you've got a lot going on in your brain…so we'll start tomorrow night, be punctual, when the sun falls I want you knocking at my door, got it?" Naruto nodded once more, before turning out a fake smile, Kabuto thought it was because he had to act all cheery, not to look down and have the elder Genin pity him, and so, didn't give it much of a thought. Naruto on the other hand waved goodbye and left Kabuto's secret room and house, dashing through the dark alleyways, his gaze determined.

The first thing he did was to go to his old apartment. He actually felt relieved, entering to see a nice heartwarming scene. Kuro's younglings, as the older black snake called them, were all there, accounted for, as was also Couch-san, which did have his clothes. The apartment had probably been cleaned, and since he hadn't been in there for months, it now actually was still clean. There was…food, in the fridge, as if they expected *him* to actually comply. Well, he had, and after a nice dinner with the best looking food there was, he then washed the dished and sat on the *couch*, which said nothing.

"He stopped following," Kuro hissed from within Naruto's arm, and the boy, nodding, closed the door, the windows, and then sat down, in the center of the room, looking at Couch-san's sad gaze he realized that Anko had left him there without telling him anything, so he couldn't help but make a sad smile, and start scratching the big snake's head.

"I kind of wonder what tomorrow will bring, Couch-san." Naruto whispered, falling asleep on the bigger snake, without going to bed, he was more comfortable there, surrounded by the snakes that, his words, were better than half the population of Konoha.

The morning sun came with a slight shriek.

As Naruto slowly opened his right eye, yawning, he stood up, going to the entrance's doorway, where a coble of boa constrictors stood in wait of his orders, as a young frail-looking girl, that Naruto had never seen before, was there. He raised an eyebrow, looking at the girl who clearly didn't seem like a menace, and then dismissed his *security* that slowly slithered back to their hiding places on the ceiling.

"You are?" Naruto queried, perplexed.

"Yakumo…Kurama…" the girl had light brown hair and slightly golden eyes, and a sort of clearly big, but hidden by the Konoha's headband, forehead. She wore her hair long, shoulder-length, with a golden clip to the side, and was wearing a dark purple jacket with a tightly knit red fishnet underneath, not in the style of Anko, but more closed, and reserved.

"And you're here because?" Naruto queried once more, as he simply sighed, inviting her in as he went to prepare breakfast.

"I…I wanted to meet my teammates before going to the training ground. I knew you lived here, because yesterday, I talked to our Jounin-sensei, and then I was going to speak also with our other teammate, Sai-san, right? It's that the name of our other teammate, right? I'm not doing a mess, right?" Naruto sighed, why was the girl insecure now? Well, the snakes were doing their best to act *not scarily*, which meant they hid under the biggest one, that tried his best couch-like attitude, keeping his eyes closed, it kind of made Naruto chuckle, seeing a big bad snake tense up as the girl simply sat on one of its *arms*.

"What's funny? I'm doing it wrong, right? It's the first time I've got a team, I was self-taught at home, but now no longer, I'm strong enough now to walk out and so…" oh Kami not a sad story coming up.

"You had breakfast?" Naruto queried, looking at the girl who slightly blushed.

"Well…I'm still a young Kunoichi who has to grow, if I eat wrongly I risk getting fat, right? And if I get fat then I might have health issues and then I might be a liability and then I might have more problems so…" Naruto stared at the wall in front of him and decided that no, he wouldn't hit it with his head…yet.

"So you're having breakfast," Naruto decided, as he cooked the rice and scrambled eggs for two, he actually had done that on instinct, so, for once, he'd break his rule of *not giving food to random strangers who entered his house in the morning*.

"But I…If you say so, I don't want to be a problem, I'm not a problem, right? Because if I'm a problem I can…" Naruto's gaze was enough to make her quiet down, as she stood up from the couch and moved towards the table, as Naruto took the seat in front of her, and ate in silence.

"It's really good you know…" she actually kept talking, even with her mouth full. It was like…

"Kai," Naruto muttered dispelling the Genjutsu, to apply it in the blink of an eye? She was good. The fact she managed to keep talking while still eating, made him repeat the *Kai* another time, then a third one, finally, he relented.

"How can you do that?" Maybe it was some sort of law, like Kakashi could do the creepy *eye smile*, and she could talk with her mouth full.

"Do…what?" she queried, worriedly.

"Talk with your mouth full." Naruto replied.

The girl actually blushed furiously, before fidgeting with a strand of her hair, and muttering.

"Right you'd be angry if I ate and spoke at the same time, right, one normally doesn't do that, right it's not good manners, right, I'm actually wrong, right, I should have probably asked before…"

"Was it a Genjutsu?" Naruto cut short the girl, who, blushingly, nodded.

"So you're skilled in Genjutsu?" Naruto queried once more, and the girl actually looked at the boy for a moment.

"You…You don't know?"

"Don't know about what?" The blond haired boy was thinking, while he grabbed the empty platters, that he might just as well take it in strides, better not to query too much on the strange changes in his life in less than twenty-four hours. He knew life waited behind the corner to throw something at him, so better just take on whatever the *psychotic* girl was offering. He was sure the Hokage would have given him a team filled with troubles. He even sounded like *he* was the sensei, not *that* woman!

"The Kurama clan is infamous in Konoha," she muttered, looking at the boy who seemingly didn't seem to care at all, instead just slightly raising an eyebrow in a perplexed, but composed, way, before pointing at his right arm.

There stood the Kumo headband, tightly tied, while a bit down, at the wrist, stood the Konoha's headband protector.

"Strange place to put headbands, right? Why do you have two, right, is it because you're not from here, but if you were a missing Nin then you'd be reported right? So it has to be something else right, but what could it be, maybe it's someth…"

"Oh for the love of Kami: I've lived in Kumo for five years. I left Konoha when I was four. Tell me about your clan *infamy* and let's be done with it." Naruto rolled his eyes over sighing, as he scrubbed hard on a platter, Kami be damned all the psychos had to be attracted by him.

"We of the Kurama clan can make Genjutsus easily…and they're really hard to dispel…some are even born with the bloodline ability to make them actually real, but in exchange for that, they develop an evil personality and are taken down…but my family was spared that thanks to the fourth Hokage!" the platter broke, snapped in half perfectly. Now he understood what the damn bastard son of a…

Minato Namikaze, sitting in his office, sneezed thirty-two times, then one more, before finally stopping and staring at how the papers on his desk had now become the papers *flying* in the room, and even out of the open window.

As Naruto finished his colored mental rant, someone else voiced an opinion.

**Kurama clan huh…what a coincidence.**

_What? Pretty famous when you were still free?_

**Bah, I might suspect they're descendants of mine.**

_You actually have descendants? Just how…no, Bee and Flowers can't work with *giant fox and humans*._

**Well, I can, or better could, assume human form, it was so long ago I don't remember and I don't care anymore, it's just, she does have a peculiar name.**

_Oh, Kurama is your surname? So you're Kyuubi Kurama. K.K._

**Abbreviate my name once more, and I swear I'll let you die of your next fatal wound.**

_Fine Kyuubi-chan!_

**Darn the day I told you my sex.**

Naruto chuckled, sure, the fox was still waiting for a good chance to strike, *easing* him into believing she was going to behave…but it didn't matter. Through thick and thin, and at the very least, *her* betrayal wouldn't leave him alive. Morbid thought, maybe, but not so bad.

"You wounded yourself!" as Yakumo screeched that, standing up and running to his hand, which was, just slightly and already healing, bleeding, she grabbed a band-aid from one of her pockets, and applied it to his palm.

"You do understand it's going to close by itself." Naruto replied, as Yakumo stared perplexed at the boy removing the band-aid, just to point out how the blood had already stopped and the wound had disappeared, without even leaving a scar.

"I…I didn't know," Naruto rolled his eyes, obviously, "well, I'm Naruto. My regeneration power could pretty much be a bloodline by myself, I can eat Ramen non-stop, and this is my partner, Kuro." As from Naruto's right arm a black snake emerged, with blue eyes, Yakumo screamed before jumping backwards.

"What is it with girls and snakes…" Naruto whined, as he scratched his head.

"That's a snake right? A real snake right? Scales and all right? Poison right? Really poisonous? It's tame right?" as the girl actually breathed harder and harder, the boy simply looked at Kuro, and muttered.

"You know, let's get this all over with." Kuro actually nodded, and then, looking at the girl, he spoke quietly.

"I can speak. Yes, I'm just that awesome." With those words, Yakumo simply fainted on the spot.

"*I'm just that awesome*? Where did that come from, Kuro?" Naruto queried, as Kuro, had he had any shoulders, would have shrugged, but, not having any, simply stared at the blond-haired boy and hissed back.

"From my larynx boss," Naruto rolled his eyes: snake's humor was something horrible to actually hear.

When Yakumo came to her senses, she was laying on the couch, who was staring at her with his big bright eyes.

When she awoke once more, she blushed, because it turned out that Naruto was carrying her on his back, towards the training ground.

"You know, you should stop fainting." Naruto suggested that with a small grin, as, with a final jump, he landed from the branch he was on seconds before and onto the dirt of the training area.

Kushina Uzumaki stood there, waiting for her *team* with her son in, fidgeting, she was sure it wouldn't have gone easily, that Naruto would hate Minato more, and so on, she expected him to scream at her, to hate her for a brief moment before finally giving in to tears, what she didn't expect was him coming while carrying Yakumo on his back, who was slightly blushing.

So one of her students was trying to snatch away *her* son, that soon? She'd give that bitch in heat a lesson about stealing sons from her.

Naruto smiled, he made just a small smile in her direction, and already thoughts of butchering Yakumo, who was still one of her students, disappeared. Well, it couldn't be helped, her son was just that charming with girls, probably had his own fan club maybe. He gently let Yakumo get on her feet, before yawning and stretching for a moment.

A third boy, with really pale skin and dark hair, arrived on the scene moments later. He had a small Tanto on his back, and stood composed, as he neared the group.

"I am Sai," he simply said, making a polite bow.

"I am Naruto." Naruto mocked the tone of the pale guy, trying his best overly serious expression. Going as far as *adjusting* a fake tie around his neck.

"I am Kuro, Naruto's partner." The black snake said, appearing from Naruto's side of the jacket's neck, Sai actually didn't budge, while Kushina got her hand on a kunai and Yakumo made a small jump backwards.

"I…I should present myself right? Yes it's my turn and so…"

"She's Yakumo." Both Kuro and Naruto said at the same time, with a sigh.

"And I'm Kushina Uzumaki, your Jounin-sensei for today!" Kushina said in the end, trying a cheer and a smile.

Good, so she ended up with her adorable son, who still needed some motherly love to open up, a silent guy, and a nervous wreck of a girl who seemed willing to mate with her son, so she had to do something.

"Now, first rule: No love relationships in my team got it? It distracts the teamwork!" as she said that, Naruto rolled his eyes, was that actually needed?

Yakumo nodded, albeit she did blush a bit thinking about a Sai and Naruto relationship…slightly bleeding from the nose, and shaking her head to hide her flushed face.

Sai did nothing, not even trying to move his facial muscles.

"Second rule: Always obey my orders, I'm the Jounin-sensei, if I say run, you run, if I say duck, you duck, if I say anything, you do it." As she pointed that out too, the Genins nodded. Good, maybe she didn't have to neuter the bitch. Kurenai had *homeschooled* her for a bit, and that made Kushina at the very least a bit glad, because it meant she wouldn't be the *direct* type of girl like many fan girls were, and would simply act embarrassed, and keep to herself, most of the time at least.

"Third rule: We do not abandon teammates, or missions, unless they prove to be too much…the missions, not the teammates!" as she hurriedly said that, Naruto sighed.

"Fourth rule: Learn how to pack for weeks and months of travel! We will be doing D-missions for a while," groan echoing from Naruto's mouth, "but then we will do C-missions all around the land of fire! Dattebayo!" with that said, she raised her right fist in the air.

"H…Hai, sensei!" Yakumo said, trying to imitate the *rising* punch in the air.

"No." Naruto dismissed that weak punch thing with a movement of his hand.

"You do it like this." Then, after a brief cough, he yelled out loud assuming position.

"YOSH! Let the fire of youth burn brightly on us all!" as he yelled that sending his right fist up in the sky, a rising sun appeared behind him, as two green clad ninjas, somewhere, actually heard their spirits being rekindled, as they increased the rate of pushups.

"…" Sai said nothing, looking unfazed, but actually jolting down mental notes about the *target* strange behavioral patterns. Danzo-sama hadn't prepared him for this actually; he hadn't been prepared at all.

"I…I'm sorry, right…" Yakumo meekly whispered, as Kushina mentally noted to have Gai and Lee stir the hell away from her son, from that moment onwards.

"Anyway, normally, you'd have to do some sort of test, before becoming fully fledged Genins, but in your case, each of you has a valid excuse to avoid doing the test. Medical, Practical or Written by the Hokage himself." As Kushina said that, she kind of let her gaze go from Yakumo, to Naruto, to Sai as the last one.

Now Naruto narrowed his eyes, he kind of got the Hokage's message of the team he was in: one had been helped by him and thus was loyal, another was too, considering the written permission, and there was Kushina. He was surrounded by loyalist to the Hokage…Kami be damned.

"So, instead of doing that, today we are going to do some light training, to see what your strengths and weaknesses are to better…" as she spoke, Naruto's mind ignored her voice, concentrating more on the pale skinned boy. He had the distinct feeling that he had seen him somewhere, a long time ago…but where? When? His face…was familiar…

**Root Barracks. Crying boy attached to another one called *Shin*, brothers.**

"You," He said, pointing his finger at Sai, who looked back at him with a puzzled expression, as he had interrupted Kushina's discussion, "You're Shin's brother." As he said those words, Sai's eyes opened in realization that the boy had actually seen through his cover. This was going to be problematic, Danzo-sama had high hopes on him, yet it was to be expected, they still had each other's faces shown in the Root Barracks, but to recall his face? He had to have a pretty impressive memory: they were just four years old at the time!

"Naruto-kun, you know him?" Kushina had just asked the question, that her son smiled, with such a heartwarming smile that she just faintly blushed.

"Kushina-sensei, you mind if I spar with him?" oh well, maybe they were friends from somewhere else…during the months of staying in Konoha.

Sai on the other hand narrowed his eyes. He wasn't blowing up his cover, it meant only one thing: he wished to *use* him. He had to report that to Danzo-sama, but to do that, he had to survive the sparring, and he had to do that, without using ink techniques, that would give him away as the attacker of Naruto, months before.

"Well then…fine, sparring first, talking later, Yakumo dear, come with me and let's watch from the side…so we can talk about your tastes…" as Kushina said that with a kind smile that hid a clearly vile intention, Naruto stood in front of Sai, who stared back at the man…calling the other one *boy* was diminutive. Neither of the two was a boy, as both were root ex-trainee or trained members, both had kills under their belt and both knew what a ninja bloody path was.

"Kuro," Naruto whispered, feeling the snake tense, "Under the tree stands the hidden shield of the leaf."

"To rise to the skies when the enemies advance," Sai whispered back, no use denying it anymore.

"We are the Root." As both whispered that, the training words resonated, and Sai's seals on his tongue understood that it was another Root operative, and that it was training.

"Real level?" Naruto queried, as he dashed, right fist forward as Sai unsheathed his Tanto, hoping that a quick unsheathe would make the boy change course, but the other's left hand was already on that, with a small pocket knife, charged with wind chakra, making its blade stronger and longer than normal.

Sai's left hand went into composing symbols for a swift technique, before muttering.

"Suiton: Mizurappa!" as a wave of water dashed forward, Naruto sidestepped to the side, making a quick jump backwards, as a water clone emerged from the small puddle of mud, taking on Sai's form.

"Water affinity huh? An interesting way of saying you want to be fried alive!" Naruto exclaimed, as Kuro grabbed the combat knife of Naruto in his mouth, extracting the Ninjato that he was holding and exchanging it, as electrical chakra flew in the blade, Kuro swapped hands, readying himself.

This was their combo, after all.

As Sai's water clone dashed forward, the Tanto in hand, and Sai himself did trying to close him in between two fires, Naruto's left arm dashed forward, Kuro emerging from it and spitting two air-chakra enhanced pocket knives, aimed at the real one, while the water clone's blade hit an electrically charged Ninjato and dispersed, due to the voltage running through it.

"Wind and Thunder: KuroNaru combine!"

The two pocket knives had embedded themselves deeply into Sai's legs, as Kushina, watching the scene her mouth opened, ready to yell for them to stop, saw Naruto dash forward, his Ninjato swiftly going into Kuro's mouth as his right palm charged itself with electricity. The boy would stop right? He would stop before killing the boy.

Sai realized that without using Ink techniques, he'd die. Naruto was going with the intent of killing him, or he'd have taken the electrical blast, while the clone would have been pierced by the knives. He had a split second to decide. Ink and live for a moment, no ink and die.

He closed his eyes, he was sorry for Danzo-sama, but it was due time Shin saw his brother again.

Naruto's hand stopped inches away from Sai's face. A chakra chain stopping him, and sapping at his chakra, as Kushina, from the side, yelled.

"It's enough! You sparred well Naruto-kun but it's enough now! You did well too Sai-kun!"

_Kyuubi, can you do it?_

**Let me try.**

In an instant, the chakra chain destroyed itself from Naruto's right arm, as the boy stood quietly, feigning ignorance and smiling at Sai, helping him up.

_So it works._

**Seems like they can nullify each other…you're smart for a kid.**

_Better to be prepared for any circumstance._

Kushina said nothing, she had felt the chakra chains being destroyed, instead of her normally stopping the chakra flow through them, but Naruto seemed so ignorant of it, and was now smiling and helping his other teammate up…well, she turned to smile at Yakumo.

"Who do you want to spar against, Yakumo-chan?" Yakumo actually looked at the two boys…and then gulped.

"Right, sparring, I…I don't know I think it's right to say it's right that…

"Yakumo! Pick me! I'll be gentle!" as Naruto yelled that, waving at the girl, Sai meekly pressed a bandage against his wounds on his thighs: a couple of centimeters higher and they would have gotten a vein.

"I'm sure your boss wants to see me…behind Ichiraku's tonight at six pm." Naruto whispered at Sai, who stared perplexed at the boy…just when did Monster-kun suddenly wish to speak with Root operatives? This had to be a ruse…one he had to warn Danzo-sama about.

Yakumo blushed at Naruto's words, while Kushina slightly growled at the girl's blush. Naruto was a heart-stealer, fine, her son clearly had all the charms of his father and mother combined, but still, did he forget the first rule *she* had set?

Yakumo stood up, getting in front of Naruto while Sai sat next to Kushina, in composed silence.

Naruto smiled at Yakumo, before muttering.

"I know it may sound hypocrite of me but…I'll have to go all-out, okay?" Yakumo stared perplexed at the blond-haired boy, who suddenly removed his jacket and shirt, making her blush even harder as Kushina's silent growl became a fierce murderous glare.

Then, Naruto removed the weights, showing his abs, his toned muscles, the glistening sweat on his well- toned upper torso, and Yakumo, who had never even seen a male half-naked, not even her father, simply fainted.

"…That wasn't in my intentions." Naruto muttered.

"Y-Yes Naruto-kun, it's clear it wasn't." Kushina gritted her teeth, as she stood up, clapping her hands.

"Well, I know Yakumo is strong in Genjutsu, but weak in everything else. Sai, you've got water affinity, so you're pretty much set on your way to Chuunin, I understand why you got the written exclusion from the Hokage, while Naruto, care to explain what that technique with your *partner* was? Did you embed wind and lighting chakra in the same moment? I thought only a Kekkei Genkai could enable it easily."

"Oh…Kuro's a natural wind affinity snake-nin." Naruto replied.

"Your snake can do natural affinities?" Kushina queried, perplexed.

"I taught him," Naruto replied, "and he learned."

"Yep, I'm the slithering darkness of the night, the biter of the apocalypse, I am the great, the one and only, Kuro the wind snake!" as the snake actually slithered from one arm of Naruto's to the other, Kushina's right fist clenched. This had to be that snake bitch work, clearly. Naruto's love with snakes was just…wrong. She had to bring him back on the right path: Kittens, or Dogs, or Eagles…not snakes.

"And the one who makes me smile when all shit comes down." Naruto whispered slowly, as he made a small grin staring at the blue eyes of the snake, who actually closed a pupil to wink back at his *boss*.

"Well…" Kushina coughed, "that's pretty interesting. So, I say we could do some D missions, teach Yakumo how not to faint in front of half-naked Genins, have Sai learn some Kenjutsu and some Taijutsu, and Naruto…you can practice learning the Uzumaki Chakra chains if you want to." There, her ace in the hole, she was sure now that Naruto would actually…Naruto wasn't listening. He was kneeled next to the fainted Yakumo, holding her by the shoulders and giving her slight slaps to the side of the face, to wake her up.

"Yakumo-chan… you should wake up Yakumo-chan." As he whispered that, the girl slowly opened her eyes, staring with a red face at the boy, who still hadn't put his shirt or jacket back on, and as she blushed far more, Naruto's small grin sent her nearly to the fainting point, once more, it was too much, too much…only one day as a Genin and it was already too much!

"Naruto! While I appreciate that you're volunteering to *train* her into not fainting, could you please take it *slowly*?" Kushina was already trying to think wherever she had actually said her first rule or not, as Naruto seemed to go deliberately against it.

"I'm enjoying it, she's actually soft and has a nice smell," pointing that out seemingly in a normal tone, Yakumo already fainted once more.

_Yes, cloistered girl. This one's out of the equation already._

**You're actually as cunning as a snake.**

_What can I say? They want to break my resolve? I'm going to teach them that messing with the Raikage's son is messing with the wrong ninja._

Naruto put back on his shirt, and jacket, before being gently pushed aside, so as to let Kushina *handle* Yakumo's awakening, with maybe a stronger than expected slap.

"Wake up, rise and walk sunshine!" as she smiled that, Yakumo wondered why the Jounin-sensei was leaking a murderous glare at her. It wasn't her fault Naruto-kun was so damn…cute? Hot? Well, those things there!

"Well, for today it's all…we did everything in less than two hours, so we can go now, tomorrow, Hokage's office at seven o'clock, we're going on missions! Who wants to have a snack with ramen?" Yakumo actually felt the need to go lie down, while Sai said he had an important thing to do.

"So, Naruto-kun…ramen? My treat, first day of training, did I go well in your opinion?" as she asked that, making a smile as she stared at the boy's thoughtful gaze, she couldn't help but wonder why it seemed so off-tracked, so…out of him.

Was he a day-dreamer?

"Naruto-kun!" She clapped her hands, snapping him back into attention.

"Yes, Uzumaki-sensei?"

"You can call me Kushina-chan, when we're alone, and I asked if you wanted some ramen, Naruto-kun." As Kushina said that again, Naruto, actually, nodded.

_I knew it! He's opening up! My plan *be a good sensei and make him alone until he can't help it but cry within my arms* is working!_

"By the way," as she said that, she started walking towards Ichiraku's, "if you ever need a shoulder to cry on…you know I'm here…or just someone to turn to, to speak with…"

"Thanks, but I've got the Couch." Naruto replied, actually chuckling at the hidden meaning.

"The Couch?" Kushina was puzzled, why the Couch?

"SO you'd prefer the Couch over ME? Huh? You damn rascal!" Kuro snapped, faking offense as head-butted Naruto's cheek.

"Ouch, Kuro! Come on, you know that Couch-san listens…and doesn't speak."

"…it's another snake?" Kushina queried, already dreading the obvious answer.

"Yep, bigger than Kuro…but he doesn't talk, which makes him a good listener, I suppose."

"I see." So she even had to get rid of the furniture? That might be more complicated…

As they reached Ichiraku's ramen, they actually found Kakashi-sensei sitting there, alone, eating ramen.

"Kakashi-sensei!" The silver-haired Jounin froze for a moment, before relaxing, as it was Naruto, the only one who could actually call him *sensei* without sending his neck-hair upwards, and…well, the mother of one of the students he *still* had to test.

"Kakashi-san, have you already tested your team?" as she queried that, sitting down, with Naruto in between the two, the copy-cat ninja knew he had to think fast.

"Well, actually I was waiting for Naruto! Yeah, I needed him!" Grabbing the boy by the arm, he pulled him to him, throwing the money on Teuchi's counter, more than what he had eaten, but he was running for his life, after all, and he dashed off with Naruto, who had the ability to become a perfectly functional bag of potatoes when carried around.

"Kakashi-sensei…you actually don't need me, right?" as Naruto sighed that, after the silver-haired Jounin decided to let him walk on his own for the remaining meters, he stared ahead, where the three recently approved Genins stood.

"Heck, I didn't even tell them they were going to be tested." Kakashi replied with a chuckle, "Want to do the honors Naruto?"

"Am I the Jounin-sensei or are you the Jounin-sensei, Hatake-san?" Naruto muttered with a fake grumpy look.

"Come on, don't be so mean with me…where did the *Bro* Kakashi-san go?" Kakashi feigned being mortally wounded, as Naruto rolled his eyes, sighing.

Meanwhile, Sasuke scowled, seeing just how, no matter what, their sensei seemed to be fine with that boy, but cared not even to get there on time for his team. This was an insult on the Uchiha's family name! It was an insult that had to be cleaned with blood…when he got strong enough to challenge the brat and kill him, that was.

Sakura Haruno was angry at their sensei was being late, but at the same time was scared by the boy, who had so easily defeated her in straight ahead Taijutsu. Why was he here? Was he going to train with them? He didn't seem like he actually wanted to be there, so why did their sensei bring him along?

Katsumi was thinking just how cool it was going to be to train with her father's student, even though he *was* a couple of hours late. That was until she saw Naruto arriving. He had already done training for the morning with her Kaa-san? Well, then why was he here? She seemed to recall that Kakashi and him were *friends* if an old guy like Kakashi, (who was actually younger than her father, if one could believe it) could be friends with one like Naruto, then she too still had a chance!

"Kakashi-sensei, you're late!" she yelled, pointing at the silver-haired Jounin, who shrugged, grabbing an Icha-Icha book.

"Oh right, Naruto-kun, it's the bell test…remember that if they pass it…you have to start reading Icha-Icha." Kakashi said, with a small grin, as Naruto groaned…so that *was* the reason he had been asked.

"Bell test?" Sakura queried, what test? Why hadn't they warned her so they could have prepared early?

Naruto looked at the three, the bell test…what fond memories of mud, of stupid words, and more than all of him and Kuro getting it together.

"Well, fine," Naruto sighed, scratching the back of his head, as he grabbed two bells that Kakashi had thrown at him, "this test is easy: get a bell, you get a lunch. You've all come without doing breakfast, right?" as he queried that, the three Idio…ehm, Genins, nodded.

"Good, so we can say you're idiots. Now, as for the…"

"We're not idiots! And you're not our sensei! Why is he here actually, sensei!" as Sakura yelled, turning to face Kakashi, the Jounin stared back annoyed, and muttered.

"To test you in my place, He knows the drill, so either you follow him or give up and go back to the academy," with that, Kakashi returned to the chapter about the hot springs, and a *kitty-catty* next room that was meowing with pleasure towards a certain young *brother*…Jiraiya-san had really intelligent and original ideas.

"What does he…" as Katsumi tried to get an explanation, Naruto snapped in.

"So, two bell, three of you, three idiots who thought not to eat before coming for a test that you knew nothing about. We're already starting on the failure path, so let's get this over quickly. How many hours do they have, Bro?" Did the boy just call Kakashi bro? Kakashi looked at the chapter he was in, looked at the sun, and then raised four fingers from his hand.

"Four hours? You really want me to start reading that trash…"

"IT'S ARTISTIC LITERATURE!" Kakashi snapped back, before turning his gaze back on the page.

"Anyway, if in four hours you don't get a bell…" as Naruto said that, he attached the bells to his right sleeve, "you get no lunch, and will be sent back to the academy…on the other hand, if you do get a bell, then you pass, and you get a lunch…got it?" the three actually clenched their fists, for different reasons.

_I'm going to catch up with you, and make you trust me, Naruto! _Was Katsumi's general thought.

_I can't go back to the academy without Sasuke! Sasuke-kun, love will triumph! I'm sorry Katsumi-chan, but you'll have to fail! _Was the thought of the pink-haired girl, as she stared first at Sasuke with heart-like eyes, and then at Katsumi.

Sasuke…scowled.

"Well…begin." They didn't take him seriously. That was their first mistake. Had it been Kakashi, a Jounin, they'd have probably hidden and waited. It was Naruto however, they saw him in class with them, they didn't think he was *that* strong. Shino? Shino would have hidden. Kiba wouldn't have because he'd fight head-on, but he'd know the difference and wouldn't underestimate him. Shikamaru would have provided support. So, when the three all raised their right fists ready to punch the boy, Naruto made a sidestep to the left, rotating on his left leg, and then swinging his left arm at Katsumi's neck, sending her backwards as the hit made her lose her breath, before rotating to the right and kicking the girl straight in the stomach, sending her to crash against Sakura, with enough strength to push her back, with Sasuke having to sidestep too to avoid the falling girl.

The two girls stood down, trying to catch their breaths, while Sasuke, at the very least, jumped backwards, disappearing in the bushes.

_At least he got it. _Kakashi thought, as Naruto yawned, before starting to look at the clock.

"It's boring!" He muttered, towards Kakashi, who grabbed an Icha-Icha book from the inside of his flak jacket, the first one ever written by Jiraiya of the series, and said.

"Catch!" Naruto grabbed it, only for a volley of Kunai to plant itself on its cover, as Naruto used it as an improvised shield against Sasuke's hits.

"Damn…it was a limited edition!" Kakashi would have cried, but couldn't, because Naruto was making hand symbols with his left hand. Maybe he shouldn't have asked him to do it, he and Sasuke…well…he would stop them if things got out of hand. He hoped…as he turned to the next chapter, that had some tentacle ecchi goodness, so Kakashi dived into it, not wanting to lose a word.

It took a moment, first there was one Naruto, but then there were twenty, and as they all dashed in different directions Kakashi smirked...well: there was no rule against the bell guy to hide.

"I'm the last of the Uchiha," Sasuke muttered, "I can't fail to one my age."

"A pity you're a failure then." Sasuke had barely the time to duck, as the kick embedded itself on the branch he was standing on, snapping it in half, as the Uchiha jumped backwards preparing the signs for his signature flame jutsu.

The moment the flame ball enlarged itself, launching against the boy, Sasuke felt fear...as a Kunai hit him on the back, a fizzle going off.

_Explosive Kunai! Shit! _The explosion sent the Uchiha on the ground, face first, and rolling back towards the clear area in the meadow, where the three wooden trunks stood.

He stood down there, scared senseless, his heart beating like crazy. No, if it had been the real thing he'd be dead. He'd be…

"You'd be blown to smithereens." Naruto's voice said at his back.

"But I wasn't using a Kunai, and there was no sizzle." Sasuke tried getting back up, but his vision started to blur.

"I did however use my partner, and he enjoyed faking the sound of a sizzle…oh, he's poisonous, but nothing lethal." Naruto smirked, as a black snake emerged from his right sleeve, with a wide grin.

"Sweet dreams, loser." The snake even talked? That was enough for him, as he fell back down, his muscles tightening as the paralyzing toxin made its course.

"One down!" Naruto yelled, as he made his way towards the other two, throwing a kick to wake them up.

They both disappeared into a puff of smoke, as a set of explosive notes, real one, stood underneath. Thankfully he managed to Kawarimi himself with a trunk, avoiding the explosion. He turned his gaze to where Sasuke was meant to be, to find he had been taken to safety…this was bad. It meant they were starting to make group…

"Are my cute little Genins giving you trouble, Naruto-kun?" Kakashi smirked as he had seen the two girls use a henge, to camouflage two shadow clones, before hiding off and tacking the chance to grab Sasuke and bring him to hide with them.

"One's down, Kuro's poison is strong enough to paralyze him until the end of the time limit. That's probably why the two started working together…they know they can get the bell, by leaving Sasuke behind." Naruto pointed that out, as Kuro himself said out loud.

"Yup! I'm pretty sure that right now they're scared senseless!"

"THE SNAKES TALK!" Kakashi had a sweat drop appear on his forehead, as Naruto simply dashed towards the source of the noise, where the two girls had been hiding till then, and as he kicked on the bush, he felt…

*puff*

*puff*

"Again?" at that moment, a lace grabbed him by the right foot, sending him upwards, in the trap.

"Ah! You fell for it!" Katsumi, the real one, said, after coming out from a nearby bush, together with Sakura.

"You underestimated us!" Sakura added, as a grin on her face appeared.

"You know…why would I create a lot of shadow clones before-hand, and then go all out in person?" just as he said that, he dispersed in smoke. Kuro chuckling as he stood perched on top of the branch where the lace trap had been placed.

"Too late to run now!" from behind them, Naruto dashed forward, both hand, luckily, not charged with electricity, and sending the two flying and falling on the dirt of the training ground, back into the clearing.

"Don't break them! The academy needs them functional!" Kakashi said with a chuckle.

As Naruto stood there, sighing and shaking his head, he looked at the two in front of them.

"You…you're worse than trash," as Naruto said that, he pointed at Sakura, and, because of that, Kakashi narrowed his eyes…those words came with reason, what didn't he see from where he was, "you had a Kunai behind your back, ready to strike at Katsumi once you both got the bells," Kuro in the meantime got to the boy's leg and slithered back into his right arm, "probably to give it to that brat of an Uchiha who obviously doesn't even care about you, as he hid instead of trying and getting you two to safety."

Katsumi stared, clearly hurt, at Sakura, who couldn't hide the expression on her face, betraying that it was the truth.

"You will never pass this exercise alone. Thankfully, at the very least, academy won't get you killed…you think being a ninja is a fun game?" Naruto queried, as he sidestep to the side, neck-chopping Sasuke, while narrowing his eyes as Katsumi, and only her, dispersed.

"Smart move," He muttered as he turned around in time to see at least fifteen Katsumi, all aiming at him.

"We'll take the bells! For our teammates who can't! Dattebayo!" with that, she charged forward, their feet stomping the ground.

Naruto sighed, making the appropriate signs, before unleashing.

"Raiton: Electromagnetic murder!" 

_Maybe that was overboard, _was the general thought of Kakashi and Naruto, as the clones dispersed except for one, who slowly fell on her knees, panting hard. Kakashi raised an eyebrow in surprise: well, he had dosed the chakra correctly at least. No need to intervene yet then, if the boy knew to hold back, it would be fine.

"I cannot fail…I will not fail…" Katsumi muttered, advancing slowly.

"Yeah, yeah…like it would…" he felt his legs being grabbed tightly by both Sakura and Sasuke, "hey, let go."

"No." Was their reply, Naruto groaned, why the team-acting right then? The next moment, Katsumi bit her tongue, she wasn't going to lose there, no, she had to give Naruto's her emotions through her fists!

As the girl charged forward, fist ready, Naruto raised an eyebrow, and then, calmly, dispersed at the right moment for the girl to send a perfect right hook at Sasuke's face, sending him on the ground, while Kuro had jumped straight into the hands of another Naruto, who emerged from the bushes.

"W…NO!" she yelled, falling on her knees, as even Sakura was of the same opinion…was he toying with them? They were at their wits ends and he was as fresh as a rose!

"I created *twenty* shadow clones. It's not the numbers that count…it's the quality." As Naruto pointed that out, he simply whipped out some rope, and began tying the three tired ninja, who had not even the strength to oppose, as they had tried, and failed, or they were too demoralized to try any more.

"Well…I say you can stay tied here till Noon, and then go back to the academy for another year." Kakashi sighed, as he looked at Naruto with a slight scowling eye.

Naruto got closer to Kakashi and sat down next to him, grabbing the *limited edition* of Icha-Icha.

"Well…I can have them stay there for a while, no?" Kakashi chuckled, as the boy, admitting defeat, since they did use teamwork, began reading his first Icha-Icha novel.

Kushina, after a good dose of ramen, decided to stroll by the training grounds her daughter was going to be, to assist to a scene that made her lose all semblance of calm.

Kakashi was reading his perverted books, and that was the usual. He was reading them with Naruto, next to him, who was doing the same, and he too had a slight blush, but seemed otherwise perfectly interested in them. The two of them had those same identical chuckling grins, and she…

The rattling of the chains was warning enough for Kakashi to take away his book, but not for Naruto, who got the book pierced and smashed and torn into smithereens by Kushina's chakra chains, while the owner of said chains stood, furious, looking at the two.

"Debased pervert…closet pervert…corrupter…I'M KILLING YOU!" as Kakashi started to run away, Naruto sighed, moving closer to the wooden poles, and untying the three Genins, of which only Katsumi was crying for her loss, Sakura was fine as long as she was with Sasuke-kun, and Sasuke was simply going to appeal to the Hokage about how impractical and unfair it clearly was…he was the last of the Uchiha! He had to pass!

"I'm sorry…" Katsumi muttered, "We couldn't pass this year…but next year, I'm going to catch up to you, Naruto-kun!"

"Yeah Katsumi-chan! Let's train even harder!" Sakura replied, raising her right fist, "and then, we'll have a rematch with you one day." Naruto raised a puzzled eyebrow in a perplexed look, and then turned to Sasuke, who rolling his eyes muttered.

"For what it matters…I'm going to train too." Naruto sighed: yeah…he had to buy Icha-Icha now.

"You all passed."

"huh?" Katsumi and Sakura queried, as Sasuke's eyes jolted in surprise.

"The purpose was not to get the bell," Kuro spoke slowly slithering out of Naruto's right arm, "the purpose was to work as a team," Kuro got on Naruto's head, standing up above the other three Genins heads, forcing them to look *up* to him, "to understand that those who abandon their mission are scums, but those who abandon their teammates are worse than scum. Alone, you stand no chances. Do you understand now? There was no two passing and one failing, as teams are made of three ninjas, not two. You'd either all pass or all fail…but you didn't know it."

"Then why no eating breakfast?" Sakura queried, she was on a diet too, meaning she didn't even eat dinner the night before.

"Because you need to see underneath the underneath," Naruto said, "it's easy to think directly, difficult to think in other ways, think about it: you're going for a fight and you go there hungry? No, only idiots do that, smart people inform themselves beforehand, find the true strength and weakness of their adversary and use it to their advantage."

"Naruto-kun…what level are you, in strength?" as Katsumi queried that, trying to see how high to set the bar, Naruto chuckled.

"There is no level in strength, Katsumi-chan," for once, the fact that he had used her name made her…slightly blush, "even the strongest of Jounins can fall to the weakest of Genins, depending on the advantages of the terrain, the luck factor, the skill, the affinities and so on…all without accounting that one might simply be caught by surprise by another. That's the point…*Gennin, Chuunin, Jounin, Anbu, Kage* are but titles, worthless if there isn't strength to back them up."

As he spoke, Kuro snickered.

"What?"

"You sound old."

"Ehi you…I'm trying to act Sensei-ish!" Naruto pouted.

"You'd be a great sensei…closet pervert." Kuro replied, chuckling and laughing out hard.

"Well, Ichiraku? I was kidnapped from there." Naruto replied with a grin, as he turned to move, being actually followed by Katsumi, Sasuke and Sakura.

_It's all going according to plan._

**You should give pointers to help others, you know?**

_What do you need?_

**I've got this really smart guy who doesn't want to set his bird free, the bird tried…**

…_stop it._

**A fox can't dream huh?**

_Not when it means my death. If it can make you happier, I'll find a way that does not entail my death and I'll set you free._

…**not joking?**

_If you try and make some ruckus in Kumo, I'll be kicking your ass back in place however._

**Fine by me…deal?**

_Deal._

He actually ate heartily, not caring to enter the conversation of the other Genins, but noticing how Katsumi seemed to have something to ask of him, but always stopping moments before, as he left, to go back to his house and wait the right moment for his other *appointment*, he was surprised, when entering his apartment, he found Danzo, there, waiting for him.

"You actually came in person?" Naruto was puzzled, as to why Couch-san, nor the other snakes, had tried to attack him and where, instead, slightly snoring.

"I could have killed them," Danzo pointed that out, "But as I am willing to listen, I did not as a sign of good faith. So, Monster-kun, why didn't you blow up my operatives cover?"

"I want to make a deal with you, Danzo." The old man didn't move, as he lightly tapped on the wooden cane he had, what deal could he offer?

"What is the deal?"

"He can keep following me, and I won't rat him out, I'll also come up with a story as to why he can use *Ink jutsus*, don't think I don't know who he is, furthermore…I know you don't like the current Hokage…and that can change swiftly in your favor, if you want to." Danzo looked at the boy, slowly opening his one eye.

"How?"

"Knowledge is power…it's a sure-proof way to stir a beehive of epic proportions on the Hokage's desk, so big, in fact, that you'd be able to get the place in an instant, with your abilities."

"Hmmm and what do you want in exchange?"

"I'll take my leave from Konoha, become the next Raikage in due time, and keep up the alliance with the *new* Hokage of Konoha…but only if I leave during the Chuunin exams, with the Kumo ninjas."

"And what if A declares war soon afterwards?"

"He won't," Naruto replied, looking at the old man, "I'll stop him by claiming that my Konoha's friends are important to me and that I'll have to defend them…"

"You are playing a dangerous hand, with a dangerous foe, boy…"

"But I'm not the only one Danzo…the Hokage wasted no time in asking me about all your doings in Root, even those your scrolls didn't mention. I will not be talking to him about it…as long as I have your own word."

Danzo…Danzo actually chuckled. There were so many ways he could turn it into his favor, no matter what the boy do, what evil would it be to follow him?

"If I accept, I take it I'll get that news at the Chuunin's exams, right? When it would be too late to change anything, what's the guarantee I won't end up not getting anything?"

"You know full well the people's I care for, your operative knows them too…you'd claim them if I made a mistake, or try a diplomatic mistake on Kumo's part to start a war, there is also Suna and Oto in the examinations…you know that you've got ways to make me pay without me telling them,"

"Smart boy…the day Root lost you was truly a sad day," with that, Danzo stopped in front of Naruto, raising his left hand, the only working one, to shake that of the eleven years old boy.

_But depending on the circumstances…I'll claim you back for my purposes…Konoha's perfect weapon._

As Danzo left the room, Naruto sighed in relief, sitting down on Couch-san who just then opened his eyes, the boy had kept his cool until the man had left, but now, now he was covered in sweat.

"I need a shower…" he muttered, as he slowly made his way to the shower, with Kuro slowly slithering to entertain some of the recently hatched *younglings* and narrating the best ways to eat mice.

The hot shower was a sort of Kami-sent, as he washed himself clean, before grabbing a towel to rinse himself off, and as he got back into the living room, he looked surprised, stopping and taking a couple of steps back. There was someone in his kitchen. Katsumi stared at him with a slightly nervous look, sitting at his table, clenching her fists.

"Yes, Katsumi-chan? I'm going out in a while you know?"

"You're the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, right?" as she queried that, looking at him straight in her eyes, Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Why do you say that?"

"Mizuki, I try to think at why you'd be in the forest, but I doubt you'd do it because you cared for me, so…you're the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, the demon, the one that Iruka even taught…you're the Jinchuuriki."

Naruto shrugged.

"So?" he queried, earning a surprised look from Katsumi.

"So? Aren't you afraid I'm going to tell it around? N-Not that I will, but just…" she stuttered, as Naruto shook his head.

"All the adults in Konoha know, the kids don't, it's an S-class secret, you speak, you die, Hokage's orders," the boy said, spatting out the last part, "That's pretty much all there is to say on the matter."

"Well but…Kumo, Konoha…why did you leave Konoha?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Excuse me?"

"Otou-san said that he had wished for the boy who became a Jinchuuriki that day that he'd grow up viewed as a hero by Konoha…why didn't you stay in Konoha?" as Katsumi queried that, Naruto felt the urgent, imminent, need, to slash her neck and bask in her blood.

He didn't, because he'd have to clean the kitchen, dispose of the body, and explain a perverse eternal grin on his face afterwards, so he simply gritted his teeth, and muttered.

"Why don't you grow up, you naïf girl…" he looked at her with a hardened glare, "you think people understand? People are shitty beings made of shitty ideals who half the time spew worthless shit made of even worse things, there is no way someone who lost his family to a monster like the Kyuubi would forgive its container, to him, they are both the same. I lived Four years of my life in the orphanage's cellar, growing up while defending myself from the rats, which were my only friends, and the kicks and the hits of the people around me. The Tenth of October, the day of the Kyuubi's defeat, while you probably had cake and celebrated your birthday, I was FUCKING BURNT ALIVE. Kicked on the ground, hit with rocks, kunais, mobbed by the same people that maybe met you on another alley saying *Oh my, hello there Namikaze-sama! Nice kimono you have there!*" Katsumi's eyes bulged, as they turned watery, placing a hand in front of her mouth to not let out a startled cry, "I had no name but monster or demon, that, to me, was my name, I learnt how to walk because of the rats in the cellar, and got shackled there because of it, when I got a bit of freedom, not much, ONE day of freedom, of a bath, of clothes, then it was taken away once more, for one year I was brutally trained into becoming THE PERFECT WEAPON to defend Konoha, I killed a boy I grew with in cold blood to kill my emotions, I was just FIVE, and then, then I got a mission, that's when a ninja group from Kumo intercepted me, and thinking I was just a civilian, carried me till Kumo, all the while trying to get me to say MY name, that couldn't be Monster, or Demon, NO! I had used my name three times in all my life, all in all, Naruto. Naruto was my fucking name…you know the fun thing? Kumo treats Jinchuuriki like any other normal people. It was nice, seeing the sky, the clouds, seeing people not throwing stuff at me, it took me years to get over all the mental conditioning I suffered through…and then…then on my first mission out of Kumo…your mother decides I'm being brainwashed and that I'm better off BACK IN KONOHA. So get out of here and don't you frigging dare come ever again inside uninvited, asking me a stupid question like that, ever again, DID I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!"

Katsumi, crying, dashed out of the kitchen, leaving a really pissed Naruto to cool off, as finally, Kuro slithered out from his sleeve to pat, with his tail, at the boys cheek, that had tears running through them.

"It's all fine boy…I'm here, you can cry on my scales. Don't you dare clean your nose on them however!" as Kuro jokingly said that, Naruto nodded. Now wasn't the time for tears…now was the time for steeling oneself. He'd get back to Kumo, no matter the cost or the price.

He'd get back to his family, and he'd do anything, anything he could, to safeguard them all from harm.

As Naruto sat on the couch, drinking a warm cup of milk…his thoughts drifted to Yugito-Oneechan.

*On the road to Takigakure*

"Sensei…are we there yet?" a boy with very thick glasses queried, big castor-like teeth, and a tanned skin, his aspect resembling that of a mole, only boy-sized, with short cut black hair and...maybe he had eyes, but under the glasses it was impossible to see them.

"No, Mogura-kun." (mole)

"Are there now?"

"No."

"Now?"

"Mogura-kun!" a female spoke this time, with dark skin, blue eyes and bright blond hair, she was in the process of going through her nails one more time, "Stop pestering our sensei, she just might start her month…"

"Not another word, Hayari-chan." (fashion)

"Yeah…can we please just be quiet?" the last one, was a guy with dark blue hair, that stood up like a sort of porcupine, his emerald gaze and his fair skin made him a slight rarity in Kumo, since there were few who actually had *blue* hair. He stood tall, probably already done with his growth spurt, but just not quite yet.

"Thank you Shinkansen-kun," (bullet train), "at least someone knows when to speak and when not to," Yugito muttered. She could stand Naruto doing noise, but not the kids. If they made noise, it reminded her of Naruto, if it reminded her of Naruto, she'd start sulking. It wasn't the Genins fault: it was just her, probably, being delusional. It was clear that Naruto would choose Kumo…but what if he didn't? What if no matter what, Konoha managed to brainwash him subtly into accepting Konoha and not Kumo? What if they found some sort of way to force his hand? Like attempt assassination on someone he valued? What if *she* became the cause he couldn't come back home? No, she couldn't leave him alone. She *had* to know if he was really fine. The letter, she had made three carbon copies and kept the original in a box, protected. She made sure Naruto's room remained clean, but untouched, he was going to come back, maybe she'd just change the bed in case of a growth spurt, but that would be it.

As she stood there, lost in thoughts, the caravan she was protecting followed silently: Takigakure would get their supplies, as no bandits would possibly stand a chance against the Nibi Jinchuuriki, especially when in a foul mood.

*Konoha- Next day*

Naruto was lightly snoring, when somebody decided to knock at his door.

He slowly opened an eye and muttering curses to Kami went to the door to open it.

"Hey boy, how are you doing?" Jiraiya had a smile on his face, seconds before seeing the snakes moving around Naruto's house…in complete freedom.

"Fine Jiraiya-san…do you have a letter from Kumo!" Naruto's eyes sparkled with joy as Jiraiya actually was pulled inside by Naruto, just to admire how many snakes there were around.

He was the Toad sage…all this snakes, kind of unnerved him. Looking at the boy's gaze however…it was filled with joy and hope. He wouldn't become another Orochimaru, never.

"Well, yes…why are you here and…" he didn't say anything else, as the boy pressed his face against the old man, without uttering a word.

"Anko-san decided that she had enough of the boy," the voice spoke, it seemed to come from a snake, a black snake, who stood on top of an even bigger snake, who *feigned* being a couch, "so she left him."

"…" Jiraiya had no words, the woman didn't seem like the type to abandon the boy, but then again, the boy did have it tougher than usual.

"So…anyway, want to read the Kumo letter?" Jiraiya said, as Naruto nodded, drying his tears and putting back up a happy smile.

"Here you go champion!" with that, the Sannin handed over the letter to Naruto, "The Raikage also sends you over these things, since you spoke about having a snake called Shiro, he thought you'd like…" the words died in his mouth, as he took out two polished white armguards, which had small holes, to fit in the pocket knives and probably senbon needles too, with the Kumo symbol on it, "something matching…the snake is black however,"

Naruto, meanwhile, was reading the letter, cringing deep inside at what was written.

_Son, everyone wanted to write you a letter, so, as Jiraiya was convinced by Yugito to stop, we all decided to write it on the same scroll, to make it easier._

_First is your Otou-san, who's proud of you! Show them the pride and the honor of the Kumo ninjas, and accept no charity from the Konoha's. I must say I look forward to meeting this *Anko-chan*, to personally thank her for taking care of you. Be strong, my son._

_Darui here…cool that you're fine. Keep doing Kenjutsu even without me around, remember…you have to pierce the enemy and then talk, not vice-versa. Stay safe._

_Yo', B's got the microphone, I'm holding from rapping, and that's sapping, but I'll do it for my bro, so prepare to give me a fist-bro, cause if when I come around you ain't punching my punch around I'll be going mad I swear and something I'll have to tear! Keep up the rhyming bro!_

_Here's C. Remember that medical Ninjutsu requires excellent chakra control, without a proper teacher, it might require time and even then without someone who can point out mistakes it might take even more. Try and memorize first and foremost stabbing and burn treatments, as they are the most common. Remember to go around with first-aid kits. _

_Do you know how worried I am? Do you know it? Huh? You're making your Oneechan worried, you…you'd better be safe, because when I'm coming to Konoha I'm going to cuddle you to death and then slap you to death, stay safe, eat vegetables, be careful of stranger, if they're mistreating you know that I'm going to burn them alive and throw their ashes…whatever happens, stay safe, I'll definitively come during the Chuunin exams, don't worry, I'll be there, and we'll catch up, I promise, I swear. Be there…please be safe._

What followed were the signatures, and Naruto, carefully re-read the letter repeatedly, silently nodding that he'd be a good boy, and he'd be safe until they'd get to Konoha, that was his promise.

"Shiro died, protecting Naruto-san from being killed by an explosive tag thrown by *that boy*." Jiraiya's eyes narrowed down.

"Naruto…please tell me everything that happened…"

"Naruto-san cannot talk, some things are secret that he cannot reveal. I on the other hand am an animal…well, I could explain while Naruto-san goes to get his first mission from the *bastard*" Naruto nodded, in silence.

"Thanks Kuro, you're a friend!" with that, Naruto dressed quickly and left, while Kuro took his time to explain everything he knew, or had been told about in detail.

By the time he had finished, Jiraiya stood up, actually allowing the black snake to go on his shoulder, going against every principle a toad sage actually had, and then dashing like a hurricane towards the Hokage's office.

Minato looked at the group that had entered, his wife, his kid, the Yakumo girl he had helped by sealing away her evil demon, the boy that Danzo had required to be placed in the team with Naruto for safe-checking, and yet, as he handed out their very first D-mission, catch Tora the cat of the Daimyo, someone broke straight through the window, as a black snake flew into Naruto's arms, disappearing swiftly into his own jacket, and Jiraiya held Minato by the neck of his Hokage's vest.

"You…are coming with me, NOW!" Throwing Minato out of the window, Jiraiya turned his gaze to Kushina and yelled.

"I'm coming for you next, first I make your husband see reason, but then it's your turn!" with that, the toad sage jumped off the broken window, as cries and battle noises echoed thorough Konoha.

Naruto, with the most innocent face ever possible, whistled as he said.

"So…let's go catch the cat?"

**Author's notes**

…**Another chapter rolls by…since it's filler (time skip is the next one) I hope you enjoy it never the less, as it's more light-hearted than the others.**

**Q&A**

**Asa usa&el frijolero: Update hath come.**

**Tamult: I portrayed Kurama as a sort of fidgety thing, but whose willing to discover new stuff, and I'm also joking on the fact that it holds the same last name as the name of the Kyuubi...(related? Who knows) Well, the Chuunin exam *is* going to be something to remember, trust me…dark clouds are rising.**

**Narutoisdabomb: Who knows, timeskip will probably be next chapter…probably.**

**Ezcap1st: I just went with Aniki=brother, though maybe I could have gone with Otouto…I think. Orochimaru never planned in canon to take over Konoha, just destroy it. As long as that's done…who cares about how? And yeah, it's psycho family time.**

**Dragonskyt: Shit isn't real yet, real shit comes in packs!**

**Lumpeyeone: Well, not with knuckles, two wind chakra enhanced pocket knives were fine? Can I ask why you almost stopped reading? Was it the sad plot, the writing or something else?**

**Angeldoctor: Loves knows no bounds…not even in madness! (Kind of like the…Yandere type, right?)**

**Therealroyboy: More like she's portrayed like a woman who *lost it* twice, lived with guilt of not being able to protect her son, and now has a second chance that not even Kami is going to take away from her, no matter what, who, or where. And Minato, I don't hate him, and it's not *bashing* him, it's just…I overexagerated his egoism, and the result was this. Hope I answered them all**

**MChief20PL: I don't actually know. Seriously, what my Muse, and the characters, decide, depends on their whims…I'm just the hand that taps on the keyboard the story, the rest is up to them…(I hate their fickleness too, trust me)**

**Gin: THHHAAANKKKSSSSS!**

**Narutorasatard: who knows…certainly it's going to be fun!**

**Mzr90: Action brings reaction, the law of physic is unchangeable…who knows what will happen…(though no, Kushina doesn't know about the *torture* part…yet.)**

**Ps: for the letter thing, Jiraiya took more time than needed to get *to Konoha* so that's why Kumo thinks he's going to get back with a letter *soon* when in truth it won't…(A Cat is going to be really angry)**

**The three Yugito's Genins *show-skill* will be seen in … the next chapter! Probably, unless death claims me for being a heart-rending bastard...**


	12. Meeting

Twelfth chapter

Katsumi hadn't gone to the training grounds that day. No, she hadn't slept at all. It wasn't Naruto's words that had scared her: it was the meaning behind them. He had been born on the same day as her, he was an orphan, she wasn't and so her father had chosen him to carry the burden of the Kyuubi, instead of her. He had been sacrificed so that she could live a happy life. She stood in fetal position, sitting in a corner of her room, imagining how it would be, if the opposite was real, instead of white walls, a comfortable bed, nice clothes, being barely dressed in rags in a dark cellar, without seeing the sky, for years.

The only human contact for years being in the form of punches and kicks, being called Monster or Demon, being burnt alive in the corner of an alleyway, with no-one coming to help you. It could have happened to her. She wouldn't have long red hair in twin tails, nor fashion magazines. Would her father have protected her? Would his name be enough to guard her from the ninjas who lost everything they held precious to the beast? Would she be bullied at school, would the students ignore her, would she be considered a menace? Her father was the fourth Hokage, if the third hadn't sacrificed himself in his stead, and he had died, would it have been the same? Would she be able to laugh and speak about boys and fashion with Ino, if she had the nine-tailed beast inside? Would she be able to enjoy life, going to bars with her friends, or to the cinema?

No. Naruto had taken it all, as him being born on the same day had meant that she, she was safe, and he, he wasn't. Every hit that he suffered, every punch and kick, would have been meant for her, if he hadn't been born, every time he was burnt alive, or thrown in a cellar, fighting off mice, would have been her fate, maybe. Would her father and mother still love her, she wondered, with her being a Jinchuuriki, would they still protect her? Naruto's parents hadn't, clearly, whoever they were, they had abandoned him, to his fate, maybe they believed he had become the monster, maybe they believed he was no longer their son but the Kyuubi reborn…yet those eyes, those scarred eyes…she couldn't let him go on like that.

Sure, she was naïf, sure, she didn't know much of his suffering, but she could change that. She could change him. He might not come to love Konoha, but he certainly could come not to hate the entire village. Some were nice folks, like Sakura's grandmother, who always had candies and honey sweets ready for them, when they came around…she had died recently, in a gruesome manner, and her assassin was still out there, ready to strike. Katsumi's eyes bulged, she hadn't thought about that! There was an assassin in Konoha! He hit its victims at night, Jounin or even Anbu class, but also civilians, cutting them up in gruesome ways but letting them live, until they either died from shock or were paralyzed in fear in the hospital, she hadn't had the stomach to hear any more from her father, so she only knew it was really bloody, and painful too. With Naruto being the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi…he risked being the assassin's next target!

She couldn't cry there, she had to help Naruto into helping himself by trusting her! She clenched her right fist, standing up to look at her face, reflected in the mirror. She just need to wipe her face clean of the tears and the snot, get barely presentable, and then dash off to save him. It was the only way for him to trust her.

As Katsumi cleaned herself, and dressed up in her one-piece orange dress, with orange shorts, she clenched her right fist, yelling out loud.

"I'll make him trust me! DATTEBAYO!" As she finished that sentence, before dashing out, she saw her father landing on his back, on the ground next to the mansion, and the Ero-sennin jumping there, to grab Minato by the Hokage's robes. She froze in place, there, in the doorway, looking at the scene. Maybe they were training? Ero-sennin was the really strong Sensei of her father, so they had to be training. Then why was the old man so angry at her Otou-san?

"Give me one good reason, Minato, one good reason I don't throw a rasengan through your guts!" as Jiraiya yelled that, straight in the face of his student, the student he had so much pride in that had turned out so rotten, at least, hearing it from that snake, he kind of hoped there was a good reason. Something the snake hadn't said, something that, if not completely, at least gave some sort of excuse for what the boy had suffered, anything, just a tiny speckle of reason, something to at least understand why a father would accept torturing his son, why he would throw him away and punish him even more, why he would do this to him and especially why it would make him force a certain snake lady to abandon him! He was sure of it, Minato had gone too far. Was he really so attached to his chair as the Hokage? Did he really want to keep power so badly?

"There aren't," Minato muttered, looking sideways.

"You subjected your SON to torture, Minato! There has to be a reason for that!" Katsumi's eyes went wide, son? She was a girl, right, so of who was the sannin speaking about?

"There…I thought we could grab some info on Danzo's Root training, but Mitarashi-san stopped me from going in person to speak with the boy," Minato muttered, "So I let him go…"

"You tortured your son, who was barely five years old when he trained in Root, all for that? How many steps of torture, Minato? How many?"

"Seven," He replied, as Jiraiya, with disgust in his face, dropped the man on the ground.

"I was told only five…" the Toad sage muttered, shaking his head.

"Inoichi did two more under my request. The boy still didn't talk and Anko's distraction was at its wits end."

"Seven steps of torture on an eleven year old, Minato…I am ashamed of you." Jiraiya didn't even think that a rasengan was going to cut it, maybe a sage-mode rasengan, but still, he didn't want to kill the man he had trained as a student…was this the reason the third never actually got around to killing Orochimaru? It hurt to be betrayed, but it hurt more to know that in Minato's eyes…there was no regret.

"It had to be done! And I'd do it again if it's for the leaf! He was accused of having stolen the forbidden jutsus scroll, and for that he had to be trialed!"

"Oh yeah, because you couldn't just ASK him, you had to be sure by TORTURING him!"

"Still, he spoke of this to you, didn't he? Did he tell you anything else?" Minato replied, with a hardened gaze.

"No, he didn't, but now I'm curious, why did you take away Anko from him?" Jiraiya queried.

"He used one of Orochimaru's techniques, the snakes from the arm thing…I thought she had taught him, and that she was a menace that had to be kept away from him."

"You're lying." He muttered, surprised. That *wasn't* the reason, the boy still couldn't lie to save his life, and that, that was clearly a lie. Wherever the boy could use the techniques of the snake sannin or not wasn't the point, it was the reason that was wrong.

"No, he really knows…Iruka-san was there, when the boy killed Mizuki in cold-blood and started to work on him…he cut his body in pieces, like he was doing an autopsy," Minato spoke slowly, "there wasn't much sanity in him that night, Jiraiya, and he did all that after *seven* steps of torture, he killed a Chuunin-level instructor of the academy, by using Raiton and snakes…"

"You are speaking of the same boy that cried hugging me because I kept asking him questions about why his *Anko-chan* wasn't there? The same boy who whimpered when I asked him about the death of his pet snake? Are we talking about the same boy Minato!"

"Naruto…" The voice that interrupted the two men was that of Katsumi, whose eyes were wide in stupor.

"Katsumi-hime…Were you listening?" Minato muttered, his voice barely coming out.

"Naruto is my brother…" She cringed, "My brother is the Jinchuuriki…and you…you chose him over me…"

"Katsumi-hime, please listen…" Minato whispered, trying to move his right hand to grab the girl by the shoulder, but she shivered, shaking her head, before dashing away in tears.

"You can't hide the truth forever, Minato. You can try, but it will come back to bite you in the ass." Jiraiya muttered, looking at his ex-student.

"I'm not going to hand him over to Kumo until due date, and by then, he'll either have come to love Konoha, or I'll make sure he'll never be able to harm the village!" as Minato clenched his fists, Jiraiya shook his head.

"You're treating him like an object…he isn't…why can't you see reason, what blinds you so much, Minato? You're even worse than Danzo: he at least can claim being a senile old fool."

"Love," he spoke slowly, "I love my wife, sensei…If she wants Naruto to stay in Konoha, then he'll stay in Konoha, even if I have to bind him with so many seals that the only thing he'll be able to do is breath and eat, I'll do whatever it takes to make her son accept her, and maybe Katsumi too, but I must think also about the village, as its Hokage, my duty is also towards the village."

"You've gone mad," Jiraiya spoke slowly, as Minato stood back up, from the ground, "you can't really be serious about this, please, Minato, please…you weren't like this years before."

"People change, sensei. I saw my wife cry repeatedly for the boy who she thought dead, and cry even when he was there, near her, yet she couldn't touch him. I'll sell my soul to the devil if it can make her happy, that's just how much I love her! But I must think also for the village. If my son, my flesh and bone, hates Konoha, I need to make sure he will not willingly attack it. I'll do whatever it takes, torturing him, or chopping off his limbs, no matter what, he will not be a menace for the village!" as Minato finished talking, Jiraiya took a step backwards, before shaking his head.

"Know this, Hokage: I'm taking the boy under my protection. If you so much as harm a single hair of his body again, I don't care that you belong to the leaf or not, I will hunt you down and I will put you down, like the beast you have become." Jiraiya then disappeared in a flicker of leafs, leaving Minato to pant on the ground, moving his right hand to swipe away the blood from his lips…he wasn't wrong. He had to save the village and make Kushina happy. Why couldn't his sensei understand that? Now he had to find Katsumi and explain it to her, before someone else did.

Jiraiya was mad. He could go straight off and give a piece of his mind to Kushina, but he had barely held in the idea of killing his own student, he wouldn't resist the temptation again. As he clenched his fists, trying hard not to let…tears fall out, he moved toward the top of the Hokage's mountain, on top of the third's head, and staring down at it, he whispered.

"Sensei…what should I do? I fear one of my students is taking a dark path…and I don't know what I can do…my words fall on deaf ears…was it the same with you?" As the Toad Sage let memories linger around his head, looking at the village, something caught his attention.

The boy was holding a girl with light brown hair on his back, and then on his shoulders, helping her get high enough to grab a lemon from one of the lemon trees that usually adorned some of the streets, and that needed little to no maintenance.

"Little heart-stealer, huh?" Jiraiya muttered, a small grin appearing on his face. Well, it sucked to keep being a grumpy old guy, so it was far better to feign being a really youngster at heart.

As he dashed to reach the duo, he thought about it…maybe he could teach the kid something too. So he wouldn't get bossed around…

Naruto had just helped Yakumo down from his shoulders, and the girl, slightly blushing, had the lemon held between her hands, with such a firm grip that it was a miracle by itself that it hadn't already been crushed into a smoothie.

"Yakumo-chan…the lemon's going to get wasted like that." As Naruto pointed that, he grabbed from one of his jacket's inner pockets a small glass flask, with a steel tip at the end. It was one of those containers used to pierce into a venom gland and sap the venom out. Naruto took care of washing them repeatedly before using them again, so he knew it was safe.

"Naruto-kun, what are you doing, is it a syringe right, then you're going to use it for the lemon, right, but then in what way are you going to make lemonade right, because if you make…" as Yakumo spoke, Naruto chuckled, simply doing what he had meant to do till then, grab the lemon, and, while slowly crushing it, letting the small steel pipe on the cork cap have the lemon's juice pass through.

Then, he uncorked the bottle, throwing the now dried up lemon in a bin, and handed it over to Yakumo.

"Here you go, you wanted to try lemonade right?" Did he just use the *right* word? He'd hit his face against a wall, but he didn't want to harm the wall's surface.

Yakumo nodded, blushing meekly, as she took a sip of it.

"It's acid!" she whined, as Naruto swiftly grabbed the bottle before it could fall.

"It's lemonade, and I'm without…" he wanted to say sugar, but then, he double-checked his pockets, "Oh, I actually *have* sugar."

"…What?" she queried, as Naruto, shrugging, grabbed just a pinch of the caramel-like substance in one of his bottles…

"Here you go." Handing the lemonade back to the girl, with the slight addition of a brownish sugar, the girl took a sip, and then another one.

"It's good." She said, gulping it down in one fluid motion.

"Really smooth too," She added after a moment, letting the taste roll through her tongue.

"You think we can have another lemon?" She queried, as Naruto shook his head, pointing in front of him.

"Cat-catching," The cat, Tora, that was also known as the *fugitive* cat, the *freedom fighter* of felines, stood there, taking the sun on the side of a stone wall, as Kuro, the slithering snake, the biter of the apocalypse, moved slowly.

The cat opened his eyes, staring with his own golden hue at the blue eyes of the snake, and as fangs saw claws, and tails met. The two nodded to each other, and began taking the sun together on that stone wall.

"KURO! Grab the damn cat!" Naruto whined, from down below, "Is taking the sun your idea of partnership?"

"He and I share something known as the soul of an animal! I will not capture a kindred spirit!" as Kuro replied that, barely repressing his grin, if a snake could grin, that is, Naruto sighed. Hard way was the high way, they used to say.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" as a human-clone ladder dashed to grab the cat, Kuro sighed, *tailing* goodbye to Tora, who was, quite immediately, captured by the boy's inhuman grip.

"Cat caught!" Naruto replied with a grin, getting back down, as Yakumo nodded, trying to make the *rising air fist*.

"W…We did it! Right? It's our first mission right, we completed it right, we did that right, or maybe we have to bring him to the Hokage, right, as it's…" Naruto raised an eyebrow, and then used his free hand to put his index finger in front of the girl's mouth…who blushed.

"Hush…you do it like this, hold the cat." As Naruto passed Tora to the girl, the cat thought about escaping, but then again the girl wasn't holding him like a snake, and he could stay and watch *the show*.

Naruto coughed, before getting into position.

"YOSH! THE FIRES OF YOUTH BURN…" as his right hand did a crescent moon motion to point at his side, while a sun was rising behind him, "BRIGHTLY IN US TODAY!" as he finished the sentence, the sun raised fully, as rumors of waves could be heard and it looked like he had ended up in a sand-like island.

"I'm never going to do that right, right?" Yakumo muttered, meekly, as Naruto got near her, grabbing her by the shoulders, and making her blush once more, was the boy that expansive?

"Nothing is impossible, you just have to believe in yourself, and train hard. Got it?" Yakumo nodded, yes, she would train harder, until her physique would at least let her go an entire day without sitting down to rest.

"Hai!"

"Well, well, well." The voice came from a really angry red-haired woman, who had, on her back, chains of chakra that were rattling with a sinister noise.

"Somebody has forgotten the first rule of…" as Kushina was just about to have her chains charge forward, Naruto smiled at the woman, with a full-out bright smile, and said.

"Kushina-sensei! We caught the cat quickly! We were good, right?"

"…Yes, Naruto-kun! Well done Dattebayo!" as she melted under such a bright smile, she coughed, raising her right hand index to point out something.

"However, please refrain from falling in love with your teammates, got it?"

"L-Love! I…I'm n-not in love!" Yakumo stuttered, as she held her chest strongly with her hands.

_I'm not worthy of being loved. __**Butcher the bitch.**_

She shook her head, no, the more negativity she had the worst it was. She had to keep a happy face, and fight.

"But I will, one day!" as she raised her right fist in the air, she yelled out loud, "One day I'll fall in love! Let the fire of yo…"

"No," Kushina snapped her out of that before she could finish the sentence, "One is enough," as long as it's Naruto-kun it's even passable, "but two in my team I refuse…where's Sai by the way?"

"Drawing on the roof, he's trying to learn how to make Ink Jutsus…he thought it would be a nifty thing to learn, with his water affinity and all," as Naruto lied, covering up for the Root guy, Kushina nodded.

"Well, if it's his decision. Not many try that, depending on the skill they're simply a waste of chakra," Naruto simply shrugged at that, it wasn't his business.

"Well, since the Hokage is busy talking with his sensei, then how about we…"

"I'm more than a pervert! I'm a super-pervert!" as Jiraiya appeared just then, behind Naruto and Yakumo, he grabbed Naruto, who assumed the *bag of potatoes* form, that was quite common to him, and waited for the Sannin to say something else, while Kuro sighed, no longer able to bask in the sun, and jumped inside Naruto's jacket to follow him.

"I'm taking him to train, I already spoke with Minato…you're next, when I calm down...oh, and Katsumi-chan knows!" with that, Jiraiya disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Leaving a perplexed Yakumo, but an utterly shocked Kushina…Katsumi…knew? Knew what? No…it couldn't be that…she quickly muttered to the young girl.

"Grab Sai and wait for me in the Hokage's office, with Tora, okay?" before dashing off, not waiting for the girl's reply, she had to speak with Katsumi, explain to her the situation, and then, maybe, she'd understand.

While on one side a red-haired woman dashed like her life depended on it, on another side, in a training ground, a white-haired fifty years old sannin took half an hour of whining to get his sore shoulder back in position.

"Geez, you could have told me you had weights on you!" As he muttered that, Naruto raised his right eyebrow.

"You didn't ask, Jiraiya-san," he replied, politely.

"…You were happily laughing and toying with your teammate, and yet now you're polite?" the Toad sage queried, curious.

"Respect is given where respect is due, friends are friends, teachers are teachers, bros are bros, and thus I act and adapt on the situation, Jiraiya-san." Naruto spoke slowly, with certainty in his voice.

"Well, since you're probably going to spend the rest of the day not doing anything important…with all the hell I brought on Minato's head," Naruto winced at the name, but said nothing more, "I'm going to teach you a cool move, okay?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Cool…move?" Moves weren't cool, as Kakashi-sensei had told him while training in the forest of death, there were two types of moves in a ninja life: those who helped to kill, and those who helped to run. Kabuto-oniisan had told him the very same thing for medical skills, there basically was the Yin and the Yang, a chakra scalpel to cut the muscles, or to mend a bone, heal or destroy, there always were two faces of a medal. So, a *cool* move didn't exist.

"The Rasengan!" with that, the Toad Sage brought forward his right hand, right next to a tree trunk, and as a chakra sphere condensed into his palm, he drove it forward straight through the wooden trunk, splinters flying around as the wood creaked and deformed, forming spirals and concentric circles around it.

"It's a destruction move." Naruto pointed that out. It was made to kill.

"Yes, fine, but it's cool! Look at the circles!"

"It's a chakra sphere." Naruto retorted.

"Precisely! A chakra *sphere*! It's got a really high destructive power too! So, how about learning how to use it?" Naruto shrugged, why not? How difficult would it be?

Nine hours later he was sore all over his body, but he still hadn't managed to get the water to spin. Kuro stood on his shoulder, patting his head while whispering.

"It is fine boss, can't have everything in life."

"No, I'm not giving up." Naruto muttered, as he looked at the source of all his problems. For over nine hours he had tried to convince the water, inside a water balloon, to explode outwardly. That was easy, it was just pouring chakra. The second problem was convincing the water to spin without destroying the balloon…that was more difficult.

"I'm not a failure, I'm not a failure." He chanted, as he tried once more, the chakra exited his hand, touched the water, it began spinning, it went haywire, it didn't circle, it didn't bend, and then, with a plop, the balloon exploded once more.

"Well Kid, you've been at it for nine hours, it took me months to get a balloon to explode, so you're doing great…everyone's got a wall to surpass, you know?" as Jiraiya said that, he looked at the determination in the boy's eyes, he was going to make it, of that, the Toad sage was sure, the problem was if he was going to die of chakra exhaustion eventually, or get it done before that. He was kind of hoping the boy would faint, allowing him to grab him and bring him back home, but instead, he didn't, he simply kept going, even while crawling on the floor, his first thought wasn't getting up, no, it was to get the balloon not to explode.

"You should get some food under your stomach and a good night of sleep…you've got missions tomorrow too."

"I will make the water spin," Naruto muttered, "I will make it spin."

"Fine! So what if we make a deal!" Naruto's eyes shot forward, looking at the Toad Sage, who was quite exasperated, seeing how it seemed the boy wasn't listening to him at all.

"What deal?"

"You'll follow my orders on training for a month, if you do that, obeying them without problems, I'll give you the toad summoning scroll to sign." The kid wasn't probably going to manage it in a month, but if he could force the boy to take a month of rest, it would be better for him. He looked too old, and spent, the scrawny little thing. Somewhere along the line his eyes had lost the sparkle of kids, to be replaced with a dark shade of blue, the one typical of elderly ninjas who had seen life taken and had taken it, all in a matter of months since he had left. He had to at least try and make him live a normal life, for a month, without forcing him to, like those two idiots thought, but just suggesting. He didn't mind giving the brat the summoning scroll, what could he summon? A tadpole, probably, at best, so there wouldn't be any problems.

"Toad summoning scroll?" Naruto queried perplexed, as Jiraiya nodded.

"Yes, it can help you summon toads to help in your battles against enemies…" Naruto stared at Kuro for a moment, as he got into a sitting position.

"Isn't there also a snake one? I mean…snakes seem to be stronger than toads," as the boy pointed that out, a tick mark appeared on the Toad Sage's forehead.

"Listen here…the snakes, usually, no offense to Kuro here," Jiraiya said, pointing at the *partner* of Naruto.

"None taken," The black snake immediately said, with a polite tone.

"Tend to be, well, snakes. Kind of shrewd, evil too, and they eat their own kind, the weak ones, and have no mercy, seeing all that aren't as strong as them as food to be eaten." As Jiraiya pointed that out, Naruto made a thoughtful look.

"Sensei, can I ask you a question?" as Naruto queried that, Jiraiya nodded.

"A summoning scroll is basically a scroll that summons toad, kind of like a Fuinjutsu seal?"

"No, it's a scroll where the user writes in blood its name, and since it's a scroll in which the *leader* of the animals of the specific type drops his blood, it means that any animal of his kind can be summoned by those who have their names on the scroll...the animals actually write their names on the scroll too, so that they can, willing, reverse summon someone." As Jiraiya explained, Naruto's thoughts turned more serious.

"So I have to convince the snake leader that he's doing things wrong?"

The Toad Sage's face actually paled.

"I don't think that's a good idea…he's not easy to reason with. Nor is the one who holds the snakes summoning scroll, whose still an *Sannin* but not a sage."  
"Why not a sage?" Naruto was confused, *sages* *Sannins* couldn't things be easier to understand?

"Well, to be a sage one has to use Sage-mode…it's too difficult for you now, in any case, if he can't he's not a sage, he can be the only holder of the summoning scroll and a Sannin, but he's not a sage…luckily." A sage Orochimaru? That thought gave Jiraiya the creeps.

"Oh…but still…toads only jump around in lakes, what's their use in battle?" The sannin's tick mark actually grew up, when even Kuro nodded to that.

"Listen here…fine, I'll show you!" as the hermit bit his thumb, and made the necessary symbols, he touched the ground, as the seal puffed out…two toads.

"Yoh!" the first was red, and wore a small sort of Yakuza-like clothing.

"Is there food around here?" the second said, being a slight yellow tint and being more round than *toad-like*.

"See? Gamakichi and Gamatatsu are both Gamabunta's sons, the leader of the toads, show this brat that toads are cooler than Snakes," as Jiraiya said that, Kuro coughed, before muttering.

"I must say you wish to have them fight me? Are you sure about it? I have been trained since young by the boss, to be able to fend by myself. I can trash them around without qualms…but I'd prefer not to."

"Is that really a snake Jiraiya-san? He's too polite for a snake." Gamakichi muttered, still slightly pissed at being called a weakling.

"I…I'm starting to have my doubts too."

"The boss is really good at changing people, Jiraiya-san…albeit being a knuckle-head sometime, since he's been lost in thoughts for a while." To point that out, Kuro ruffled with his tail Naruto's hair, as the boy had a thoughtful gaze on him, like he was thinking about something.

"Thank you for your proposal, Jiraiya-san…but I think I know what to do…you have to defeat fire with fire, after all." As soon as Naruto finished saying that, he chuckled, "and I just know where to begin."

As he finished speaking, he stood up, creating the necessary numbers of clones to send their respective ways, before sighing, breathing slowly.

"If it works, it's going to be…interesting."

"You don't want to share the secret with the old Toad Sage, huh?" Jiraiya muttered, as Naruto, simply, chuckled.

"Well, I guess I can say this: there's no business that remains unchallenged for long…I'll go off to sleep now, I'm tired as hell…"

As Naruto made his way, Kuro on his shoulder, waving goodbye with his tail, Jiraiya turned his mind to what the boy had said…just what could he mean?

He chuckled, however, as with his good vision he saw the boy remove from one of his pocket an Icha-Icha book, starting to read it. Good, he was in a good enough spirit to go and talk to Kushina now.

*Anko's *

She woke up, groggily. Well, the night out drinking sake had been hellish, nobody to talk to, nobody who cared, Kurenai had barely managed to convince her to stop drinking, to get back home, she had then left, obviously, appointment with Asuma, can't miss those. What a friend. She looked at her apartment, her snakes, crawling around, slithering. She had enough ryos in the bank that she could buy the entire apartment complex, all to drop the kid, all to leave him to his own work. An S-mission, huh. Well, she wouldn't touch the money, it wasn't for her. She did make a will, better now than never, and the money would be handed over to Naruto, once she'd be a goner and he'd be of age. Nice gift, maybe, for all the birthdays she'd miss, probably. The scrawny little thing was probably trying his best to act cheerful right now, while in truth he was probably more wrecked up than she was. She was used to loss. She had just forgotten how much it hurt. She stared out of the window, and muttered.

"Crap." It was already dusk. She had slept all the day, she really *did* a number last night with the alcohol. She wasn't even an alcoholic: sure, she was a Dangoholic, but not an alcoholic. She moved to the fridge, no use going to work today, so she could still cook something. She stared at the insides of the mechanical contraption…empty, like the apartment she was in, except for the snakes that was. Still, none of them talked, thus there was no point in it.

She needed to cool off her thoughts, but she couldn't just leave her head in the fridge. She was Anko Mitarashi after all! She had to pop a smile, grab a dango stick somewhere, and go out to have some fun at the bar.

Maybe she should have stayed at home that day. Seeing the boy, the green dressed boy walking straight ahead of her, searching for someone was already hard enough, seeing more than one of them in little time, that was a clear sign she had either gone mad, or she truly needed to stop drinking alcohol. She knew of the Kage Bunshin, the boy hadn't stopped ranting about it for hours, but then again, was he looking for her? If he was, she had to hide. She couldn't let him see her. He'd try and smile to her, wave at her, and she'd know he'd have already forgiven her. She wasn't worthy of being forgiven. He should have hated her, but instead, she had to write that stupid slip of paper, hiding it into the ramen box, because she had to tell him it wasn't like that. So now he probably didn't hate her, but he did hate the Hokage, he did hate Konoha. She should have just sacrificed her happiness already, but she couldn't not when that adorable boy called her Oneechan for so much, and was there to smile at her when she came back from the bar slightly drunk, she didn't even drink a lot with the brat home, didn't want to set a bad example. She felt ashamed of showing herself in the streets, going to get drunk, and being lively at it too, she truly felt the need to hide her face.

So, she turned around a corner, to her favorite dango stall, and, once she ordered, she was already prepared to pay, when the guy selling the stuff shook his head.

"Somebody already paid for it."

Anko raised an eyebrow.

"Who would?" she asked, quite surprised, did she actually make an impression on Kurenai? They usually split the bill at dinner too.

"A blond boy, black snake on his shoulder, said you'd probably pass by here in the next five minutes." The man shrugged, as Anko nodded, grabbing the dango stick and starting to bite on it.

He was just too much of a good boy.

Why had she left him? The Hokage could go to hell for what it mattered to her. As she chewed on the last remaining dango, her eyes narrowed for a moment, before heading back home. She wasn't going to drink that night.

It was a moment, once having closed the door, she spit out the last dango, which in truth wasn't a dango, but a small plastic ball, colored to resemble a dango, and covered with just a slight red bean paste, the stick passing through a small hole on both sides of the sphere.

It opened, to reveal a slip of paper, which Anko, holding it like it was a treasure, read silently.

_I got the message Oneechan! I'll take care of it!_

He'll take care of it?

Anko couldn't help but laugh a little at that, shaking her head. A boy eleven years old would take care of it? He wrote it in the spur of the moment, probably, but he did have the guts to use a hidden mean like that, she kind of wondered when the dango stall had actually changed its owner…and then she realized that it had been the boy all along. She couldn't help but laugh at that realization. The brat was resourceful, more than she thought: he'd be fine even without his Oneechan around, and if he was taking care of it, why should she worry? She'd make sure to see him however, even if it meant going as an examiner to the Chuunin's exams. Yeah, she couldn't miss her brat's graduation after all.

*Kushina*

Katsumi wasn't at home. She wasn't at her friends. She wasn't at her sensei's house, she was nowhere. That's when she started panicking. Before she was just worried, now she was panicking. Somebody stole her daughter. It was clear that somebody had just been waiting for that moment to steal her precious daughter, make her into a breeding machine somewhere else, and that could only mean one thing: there were Kumo spies in Konoha. She knew that they wouldn't simply accept Naruto being here, they had to grab her daughter, maybe to convince her to let Naruto go. She wouldn't lose any of her children, ever again. As the red-haired woman clenched her fists, she decided to try one last place, Naruto's house.

It was still a remote possibility, but a possibility never the less.

However, on her way there, someone had to stop her to talk with her, obviously.

"Kushina-san, we need to talk," Jiraiya had appeared, obviously, the old pervert had said he'd come to speak to her too, but right now? Now wasn't the moment.

"I'm a bit in a hurry, Jiraiya-san, I can't find my daughter…now's not the time."

"Kushina-san, you knew Naruto was tortured?" as the sannin asked that question, Kushina froze. What? Why?

"N-No…when? Who did it?" as she asked that, she feared the answer.

"The Hokage gave permission, and he even went beyond his duty. Instead of stopping at the fifth step, he went till the seventh, the seventh step of torture, you know what that means? It means piercing his hands and slashing his back, repeatedly, with salt. It's the extreme pain steps, and the boy didn't relent, he didn't say anything else. He was innocent, but instead of believing him, Minato believed the words of Mizuki."

Kushina trembled, turning slightly pale and shaking her head, why didn't Naruto tell her that? Why wasn't he speaking with her? She could help him and she could make him feel better, because after all, she was his mother!

"I…I didn't know…I'll talk to Minato…"

"I already did, this morning," Jiraiya replied, snapping: "Now I want you to let Naruto go."

"W…What!" No, Kushina wouldn't do that, the sannin was working with those from Kumo…a thought crossed her mind. It couldn't be that the old hermit was in truth the kidnapper of her Katsumi-chan? Could it be him? If it was him, then…

"You have to let Naruto go: it's his choice where he lives and who he calls family, and you…"

_No, stop, don't say anymore, don't say it, I don't want to hear it, no, it's not true. _

"You'll never be considered his family."

The chakra chains dashed forward with the speed of light, as Kushina dashed, Kunai in hand straight against Jiraiya.

"He's MY SON!" that single yell was meant to prove everything, to show everything, to make him understand, so why wasn't he understanding? Why didn't they understand her? He was HERS. Her baby, her son, hers, she had lost him, she had cried for him, now he was within her grasp, and she would *not* lose him again, ever. Not to Kumo. Not to Danzo, not to anyone.

Jiraiya wasn't a legendary ninja because he had collected the ramen coupons or the toad sage because he was stupid. When Kushina came, clearly mad, with the intent to kill him, he dashed backwards, avoiding the chains that embedded themselves deeply in the road's pebbles, grinding against it while creating sparks, as the red-haired woman didn't seem intentioned to stop.

_Better to leave and have her calm her nerves. _Jiraiya thought, as he quickly created a shadow clone, dashing into two opposites direction, feeling a bit of a bad presentiment, when his clone, who had been a bit slower to be more easily grabbed, brought back the memories of the woman's face…it was one of a madwoman. He had to do something, however, but he couldn't bring the boy out of Konoha…without the Hokage's consent.

Kushina reached Naruto's house, calming herself down, she slightly recalled the toad sage saying something bad about her Naruto-kun, and she had right there decided never to have the two meet again, with that in mind, she waited in front of Naruto's door, after having knocked furiously for five minutes, so, she turned to leave, until she felt the familiar noise of water boiling and exhaling from a teapot, the high whistle more than enough to attract anyone's attention.

Naruto didn't want to answer the door, probably he was in the bathroom, taking a shower…had to be that. She decided he wouldn't mind if she barged in, after all, she *did* have a spare key.

So she entered, and she saw green.

She saw green because there were snakes everywhere, a sort of infestation. They laid eggs in a corner, where a couple of plant-trees stood, while the Couch was going as far as stopping feigning being a piece of furniture, revealing his true nature as an enormous anaconda, while boa constrictors stood a lazy watch next to her, hissing at her in the doorway, but doing nothing more.

At least they were trained.

She decided not to query anymore, and take a step inside.

The Boa's dashed against her with speed unprecedented, but as Kushina slashed them, with a quick use of her chakra chains, they dispersed into smoke.

"Smoke?" now that was puzzling.

As she saw the Couch rise to its height, and getting into a position likewise that of a rattlesnake, to probably pound at her, a voice called from the bathroom, it was Kuro's voice.

"No interrupting! Alpha, Beta, go back to your posts." From the bathroom's door, the two snakes that Kushina had hit slowly slithered to the doorway.

The Red-haired woman gulped nervously, as she entered the kitchen, no longer being stopped by the snakes, to realize *why* there was tea boiling, and nobody was coming.

Katsumi was there. In the kitchen, a warm cup of tea in her hands, staring at it with sad red eyes.

"K…Kaa-san," she muttered.

"Katsumi-chan…" Kushina whispered, gently, moving closer to her daughter, who, however, shivered and recoiled slightly, "what happened? What did you hear?"

"Naruto-kun…is my oniisan, right?" she bit her lower lip, worriedly, as she finally asked the question she was meaning to ask since that morning, when she had dashed to Naruto's apartment, only to find that Naruto wasn't there. When she had come back later, after going around without a purpose, she had been treated to the kitchen by a clone, who dismissed any query she might have with a *later*, and had then dispersed.

"…he is." Kushina whispered, "He's your twin brother. You were both born nearly at the same time…he's the older one, however, so yes, you can call him Oniisan if you want…"

"Why did you abandon him?" She pleaded, her eyes watery, as Kushina shook her head strongly.

"I didn't…your father told me he had died at childbirth."

Katsumi's hands clasped against one of her mother's bigger ones.

"Then why didn't you say it out loud, when he came back to Konoha?"

"There were…people, who'd willingly use him as a weapon and not as a child…only the Hokage's powers could stop them, but only if it wasn't revealed that he was the Hokage's son, because it would have had a negative…backlash, on your father's career, claiming he was power-hungry by keeping the Jinchuuriki in his family…" Kushina whispered the same reasons that Minato had given her: it was either that, or losing their child to Danzo. The same Danzo that now had a deal with Minato, the very same she couldn't trust, she wouldn't trust, and she'd never have in a room with Naruto ever again.

"You left him alone." Katsumi muttered, "All this years, you and father left him alone."

"That's…I didn't want to! I didn't know!" Kushina snapped at her daughter, who looked horrified.

"He was even burnt alive, he lived in a cellar, being punched and kicked daily, he went through hell, and he was alone. He could have been with a family, and he was left alone…" tears started rolling down Katsumi's cheeks, "and you left him alone again, you're monsters...I'm not leaving him, you got that?" Kushina sighed. Well, it was still someone from the family being with someone else, it could even turn into a good thing, in the long run.

"And where do you think you're going to sleep huh? Come on, you've disturbed him long enough for today, tomorrow he's got more missions with me and his teammates," she barely finished that sentence, that a cough attracted their attention.

Kuro stood on the table, having probably slithered up there while the two females were talking, and was staring at them in a sort of rattlesnake like position.

"I must ask you both to be silent. If any of you will raise her voice in the following five minutes, I'll unluckily have to put you into a paralyzed state." He even sounded sorry, as he said that.

"Wh…Why?" Kushina whispered, in a low tone.

"The Boss is trying his hands with a scroll of Fuinjutsu, after having Kakashi Hatake explaining to him how it worked for his Dog-nins…the use of clones around town that you queried about, Uzumaki-sama, was for that."

"And the recipients would be…the snakes here?" she queried, perplexed.

"The boss has also received permission from the snakes of the Forest of Death, having gone there with Kakashi-san earlier."

"They accepted?" Kushina's heart was giving away, as she felt a sharp pain in her heart, Kakashi was the one the boy called to go somewhere, not her, but still, she had to trust into her husband's student, right? The silver-haired porn-reader maybe wasn't all that bad, if he helped out her son.

"The former presentation with Mitarashi-sama helped ease the diplomatic exchange that followed," Kuro replied smoothly, making a small smile at the really difficult words he could now use, "he is now producing the summoning scroll needed."

"…how many names has he wrote on it?" Kushina whispered, a dark thought crossing her mind.

"Five," Kuro replied, easily. _Hundreds._

"Oh…it's not much blood then," she whispered once more, as Katsumi, perplexed, stared at the snake, the talking snake, and her mother.

"Blood?" she meekly asked.

"Yes, Uzumaki-san, the blood is needed by the summoner and by the snake, as the boss is currently creating the scroll, he has to pay a price in blood, by writing the names of all the snakes, who can then be summoned or reverse summoned at leisure…obviously some might be more angry than others…but it should not create a problem."

_Famous, last, words._

Obviously an eleven year old wasn't going to go far, in that way.

Naruto had done everything that his sensei had told him. Get the names, prepare the contract, have everything ready. The only problem was that, while Kakashi's basic relied on summoning them through symbols, and not actually creating a contract, Naruto had gone beyond that. He had wished to create a summoning scroll for contractors of the snake summons that would summon the snakes from the forest of death and his own. Good snakes. That, obviously, was an entirely different thing. He had barely began sending the chakra in the scroll, that it was felt by the White Snake Sage, as nobody could actually think that toying with his own family would go unnoticed, or unpunished.

Still, for once, the enormous white scaled reptile felt the need to have a nice laugh, and instead of outright killing the impudent man, by sucking away all of his chakra, he reverse-summoned him straight there, in Ryuchi Cave.

The cloud of smoke dispersed after a while, as, for once, the snake's cigarette holding was just about to fall down. Standing there, in the center of the cave, wasn't a man: it wasn't Orochimaru, the one who Manda barely tolerated in exchange for sacrifices. It was a boy.

A blond haired boy, of eleven, with a dark green jacket and a bright green shirt, whose wrists slowly stopped dripping blood from the gashes auto-inflicted probably to do whatever he was doing.

"Is this one of Orochimaru's joke?" the snake's voice reverberated through the cave, as masses upon masses of its children spewed forth from the various holes, coming to see why, their sage, had actually spoken.

"Oro…who?" Naruto had barely asked that, half frozen in fear, that the snakes around him had already charged at him, fangs ready, poison dripping down from their canines, as they bit the boy repeatedly, making him scream in pain as the worst toxins ever produced by nature worked their course on his body, making him shiver, or tremble, or suffer as muscle spasms tore his bones apart in pieces, and he fell on the ground, given for dead, the snakes slithered back into their holes, leaving only the white snake sage to decided wherever or not to eat the corpse of the boy.

"Nobody replies to my questions with a question." The snake had barely spoken that and was pondering on it, that the boy…flinched.

"Now…" the snake was surprised, he saw it with his eyes after all, the bites, the poison, none of his children were *holding back* in punishing the intruder, "you're still alive?"

Maybe he was immune to toxins, but then, why did he suffer through all that? Did he want to show his strength? Maybe he wanted to be proven strong, oh…maybe he wanted to contract with the snake head directly, not passing through Orochimaru? It could be that too. That took even more guts than speaking to Orochimaru, however.

"Y-Yes," as a foul chakra seared through the boy's vein, so foul that even Manda would have been impressed by it, the boy stood back up, breathing hardly, as sweat drops fell from his forehead and his body still shook slightly.

"What were you doing?" The snake asked once more, setting alight his cigarette, to take another puff of smoke.

"I was…creating a summoning scroll." Naruto whispered, as his eyes were red, and fox-slit, yet it wasn't anger he felt, he more likely felt…cold, damp, saddened, he felt grief.

"Using snakes as a family, and you expected not to be caught by me?" Naruto looked at the big white snake: he'd never seen one so big before…did they all naturally grow till then if they weren't stopped? And where was he? The cave was damp, but not dark, it was enormous, clearly not the forest of death.

"I…I didn't know I couldn't, sir…and I don't know who you are." The white snake, for once, slithered down from his throne, his massive body coiling repeatedly around the boy, before taking a deep puff and then exhaling the smoke of the cigarette on the boy, who started coughing.

"Hakuja Sennin, it's who I am…the White Snake Sage…you tried without knowing, do you not have a teacher?" One that was skilled enough to pour the chakra to be brought till the cave, and to survive multiple snake bites, and not just any snake, but his children, the strongest and fiercest ones, without a teacher would been unheard of.

"…I have…" he whispered, recollecting his thoughts, who did he have as a teacher? Kushina Uzumaki was a jailor, Kakashi wasn't quite a teacher as a friend, he did teach him, before, but now who did he have? Maito Gai was busy with Rock Lee, Jiraiya-san? He had a feeling that if he did say that name he'd end up dead, immediately, who was there? Anko-chan? No, he wouldn't bring Anko-oneechan in this.

"No-one...I had… before…but not now."

"You've got guts…to lie to me." As the white giant snake said that, he neared his golden hue eyes at the boy, the sheer difference was enormous, Naruto wasn't more than a speckle into the Sage's eyes, who then hissed, slowly, "I smell the toad hermit's stench on you, but also that of snakes that is older…and even a familiar one too: that of blood…very well, I'll let you go, you did entertain me enough for the moment…you have *my* permission to summon *your* snakes, brat. Entertain me more, with the passing of years, and maybe *my* children will be at *your* command…if you'll prove your strength, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi."

_And maybe I can use him to take care of Orochimaru…letting him grow with snakes without the Snake sannin knowing it…he'll toughen up with time, the brat…_

With a final puff of smoke, Naruto's gaze lost focus, and when he actually regained it, he was staring at the ceiling of his bathroom. He coughed, exhaling the smoke that had remained in his lungs, as he looked to his side, where a bright green scroll stood, on its white parchment-like surface were clearly written the names of all the snakes he could summon, plus his own, as the first one.

"Now that…I wasn't expecting that," he muttered, his head having a pulsing headache as he stood in silence, hearing the water dribble down from one of the faucet's, as he eased his breathing.

How much time had passed?

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN FIVE HUNDRED!" Oh, not too much, Kuro had finally confessed the real number…maybe fifteen minutes? The yell made his headache worsen, he had thought that being blood deprived meant being light-headed, not suffering from a headache. The door of the bathroom nearly flew off its hinges, as Naruto tried a small smile, as Kuro slithered in to get on his chest.

"Hey…I did it!" the boy muttered, trying to get on his feet, only to be tackled on the ground by the crying woman, who was hugging him tightly, tears running down her face.

"Stupid, stupid idiot!" Kushina cried while hugging him tightly, as Katsumi stared at the scene from the hallway…maybe her mother *didn't* want to leave Naruto…but then why did she accept her father's words?

Naruto said nothing, already too tired to say anything more, as he slowly drifted to sleep.

*Days later*

"Naruto-kun! Catch!" Tora the cat flew in the air with a loud meow, as a sort of bulky oni had grabbed him by the tail, throwing him around like he was a sort of toy, and then launching it into the hands of the dark grey and dark green dressed boy, who had grabbed him without as much as flinching. His white armguards didn't reflect light, albeit they did seem to shine, if one looked at them. The next moment, a brief spark of electricity stunned the cat, as a voice whined its displeasure.

"Boss! Was that really necessary?" Kuro muttered, as his head appeared from Naruto's jacket, much like Akamaru, once, had. Since the summoning scroll had been created, he and the other snakes had begun a strange…increase in size. It was light, for the moment, but it meant that unless Naruto removed his weights, he wasn't able to hold Kuro twirled around his right arm, without someone noticing the bulk.

"Tora, when will you learn…" as Naruto whispered to the cat, slowly muttering something in his ears, "Next time…I won't be this merciful…" then, he grabbed a bag from his inner pocket, and closed the animal inside.

"Naruto-kun, isn't that animal cruelty right?" Yakumo queried, jumping down from the tree branch she was on, biting onto a lemon. She liked lemons, biting onto them, even with their skin still on, it didn't matter, she liked the acidic taste, it help soothe the need for sweets she had developed recently.

"I don't think so," Naruto replied, shrugging, "Anyway, I see you've gotten able to walk with the weights I loaned you,"

"Yeah…at first it was difficult, barely two kilos and panting to rise from the bed, but now I'm used to them, so I say I can increase them again…" with that, they both grinned, before doing *the pose*.

"YOSH!" they both yelled, as Sai stared at the scene from the rooftop on which he was, seeing how, at the yell, a red-haired woman was already moving in to intercept the duo.

He shook his head. There was something strange with Naruto recently, he was sure about it. He had helped him with the ink stuff, and now he could actually explain why he was using ink jutsus…but then, why was he acting like that? It was like he was hiding something else, under his bouts of happiness, or wickedness. He didn't know what it was however, but he'd report that to Danzo-sama, in due time.

There was also something else, some sort of feeling in the back of the neck, of being constantly watched in the night. Yet…he couldn't figure it out, and he was a Root operative.

Was the assassin on his tail? Even Root was puzzled, they, differently from the Konoha's Anbus, had found out the two small holes on the head of the victims…but they were too small to be the result of a snake's fang, too precise. It was like a syringe had been used…and that, that didn't seem well because it meant a lot of skill to *pierce* someone's skull without breaking the needle, while the target was asleep. Something was amiss…but what?

As they returned to the Hokage's office, to redeliver the captured cat, who was now being carried and just so every now and then dropped on the ground, as he was in the bag, Naruto started thinking just *when* the Toad Hermit was going to show himself to him again. He hadn't yet written a letter back to Kumo, still, it would be within a month, after all, he did say that he had to stay an entire month following his orders. So he'd train with the Rasengan that refused being learnt by him, balloons always exploding, instead of staying in a spherical motion, and while he was at that, his nightly sessions with Kabuto had finally touched the organs in the human bodies. He still had trouble actually creating a chakra scalpel, as it required a fair more chakra control than he had, but he had chakra to waste, so he could hold it longer.

It took time modeling it, making the chakra scalpel thin enough to become a sort of needle, and then it took even more skill to pierce through a man's skull and drop in directly Kuro's poison. Once that was done, however, it was flawless, as he could toy with the body without problems. He learned a lot of things, Kabuto had even congratulated him on his ways, saying that the *evil doers* he delivered to the shinigami earned it. He was being a good boy, all for his Oneechans, for Yugito and for Anko.

As they entered the Hokage's office, Minato stared with cold eyes at Naruto, and at Kushina. The woman had actually filed the divorce and left him together with Katsumi. Better yet, he had been forced to leave the mansion due to the judge decision, but luckily, he was still the Hokage, which meant that he could assign an S-class secret on the reason for the divorce, and since the punishment was death…nobody was going to talk.

"Very well, mission completed once more…" as he gritted his teeth, saying that, he realized the only other available mission was a C-rank one.

Well…time to break up the happy easy-to-go family, and spend some quality time with his daughter.

"There's a C-rank mission available, for you…it's going to Takigakure to provide assistance and relief efforts. There will probably be ninjas from Oto and their own supplies too, so do get along with each other," Kushina raised a hand, her gaze narrowing.

"Yes, Uzumaki-san?" Minato muttered, gritting his own teeth.

"I don't think we're ready for the mission…" Naruto, in that moment, caught the ball.

"I think we are, Hokage-sama!"

"I think so too, right?" Yakumo said as Sai…Sai actually did nothing but ponder.

"Naruto-kun! It's a couple of weeks of travel! Plus bandits along the road most probably, we should wait for an easier C level mission," Kushina replied back, "remember my rules…"

"Aw come on! We can do it! You can even teach me the chakra chains on the road, Kushina-sensei!" as Naruto pleaded with his eyes watering, Yakumo silently grinned, placing a hand in front of her mouth. Sai raised a puzzled eyebrow, what game was the boy playing at? It was like he enjoyed…brewing trouble between the Hokage and his wife.

He was preparing chaos.

"We're going to be extra careful then, and if I say it's too much then we go back, got it?" Naruto nodded, but as he started to make the *Gai* move, he was stopped, as the door swung open to reveal Katsumi yelling.

"IT's not fair! I want a mission too!"

"Katsumi-chan! No eavesdropping!" Kushina scolded her daughter, who walked in, her hair in two long twin tails, followed by a nervous Sakura, an uncaring Kakashi, who however did wave at Naruto who waved back, and a scowling Uchiha.

"Damn, the Uchiha can only scowl. Here I was thinking the sharingan was their key feature." Naruto said, loud enough to be heard, as he elbowed in a mocking tone Sai, who perplexed, replied.

"He must be a dickless duck-haired guy." The result was priceless.

Kakashi turned around to avoid showing the chuckle he was making, Katsumi outright laughed, Sakura pinched her hand because no, she loved Sasuke-kun and Sasuke-kun had no duck-hair, Kushina stared her mouth agape at her student's word, Minato, he was ignoring it, and while Yakumo blushed, not used to such terms, Naruto simply thought that maybe he should use someone else as the *duo*, Sai was simply…too direct.

Sasuke decided that no words had been pronounced by either of the boys, ignoring them, both.

"Well, anyway, there is only one such C-level mission, and they arrived before your group, Katsumi-chan, so there's no need for you to pout, you'll eventually get your own, one day." Minato pointed that out, as Kakashi coughed.

"Actually Hokage-sama, I was thinking, Takigakure is the village hidden by the waterfall, who is famous for its *Hero Water* that makes a user increase its chakra capacity tenfold."

"At the cost of one's own lifespan, I know, Kakashi-san, so?" Minato queried back his former student, what was he aiming at?

"Since the village was razed by bandits, it might not be uncommon for them to move towards the widest country, to hide better, with hero water stashed into their satchels, they could charge straight through a single Genin group…if two provided assistance, instead…"

"It would be less risky and easier to solve the mission." As Kushina said that, the other reason why she was in favor was that she wouldn't then have to leave Katsumi in the hands of her father for the time during the mission.

Minato gritted his teeth: fine, they wanted to go on the mission? He'll let them go on the mission.

At the very least they were banding together, it still would work to make Naruto try and think of Konoha as a home.

He'd have to trust Danzo on this.

"Fine then…you may all go in the same mission, but the pay will be split."

Naruto groaned, making a rapid calculation.

"It's practically less than a D-level mission! I've got snakes to feed! Think of the hatchlings!"

"Yeah! You cruel, cruel man!" Kuro said, feigning a tear.

"You'd better get going before I send you all to pick up the garbage from the streets!"

Sasuke flinched at the recollection of a horrible memory while looking at his hands, there still were some marks of snake bites on them…he couldn't even throw his own garbage without checking thrice for the lack of reptiles.

The Genins marched quite happily through the dirt road that would lead them to Takigakure, but as they did, the charts with the supplies next to them, two Jounin-senseis were whispering to each other behind them.

"Are you sure?" Kakashi raised his only visible eye, surprised by the woman's claim.

"I'm afraid I am, the Toad Sage has gone mad recently, probably realized his books are trash," this made Kakashi cringe, they weren't trash, even Naruto, right there, was reading the fourth installment in the series of *Icha-Icha* novels, "and that they won't sell forever, he tried convincing me to let the boy go back to Kumo! He must work for the Kumo ninjas, I tell you."

"Jiraiya-sannin? Are you sure? He is considered the most loyal to the leaf," Kakashi replied, surprised, "anyway, I'll keep an eye out…but I don't think it's possible."

"You've been teaching Naruto-kun for a while, right?" Kushina queried, staring at the back of *her* son. Who was happily talking with Yakumo, that girl that was always in heat it seemed, as she didn't let go of her son even for a second.

"Yes, in the forest of death none the less, he knows that place better than I do, now." There was pride, in his words.

"What have you been teaching him, Kakashi-san?"

"Some Raitons that he knows fully well not to use publicly, you'd be surprised, but he should really get the title for being unpredictable on the battlefield…he's something else, entirely."

"You seem fond of him," Kushina pointed that out, as she couldn't repress a small smile, looking with pride at Naruto's back.

"Yes…I'd adopt him, if I could." As Kakashi said those words, moving close to Sakura who was yelling something, Kushina's gaze hardened on the Copy-cat ninja's back…was there someone else who was trying to steal her Naruto-kun away? …She'd teach *scarecrow* not to meddle with someone else children.

As they walked, Katsumi tried repeatedly to start a conversation with Naruto, who, however, cut her off every time, preferring to reply first to Yakumo or even Sakura.

The red-haired girl was trying hard to find a reason for that, couldn't he at least *acknowledge* her tries into becoming friends with him? Couldn't he at least try and be…brotherly?

No, it couldn't be his fault, after all, Naruto wouldn't throw away his very own sister, *little sister* too, probably she just had to try harder, be louder, or act even more happily to force him to grin.

Yeah, she'd try that.

As she steeled her resolve once more, the days passed, as Naruto learned the basic components of knitting a chakra chain, while Katsumi, on the other hand…realized she hadn't inherited her mother's chains. She wasn't able to produce them. She had lots of chakra, and resolve, but couldn't make the chains as easily as Naruto, and thus…she felt left out.

Envy, was probably her term, but she couldn't feel envy over her brother, who shunned her not because she wasn't able to make chains, but because he didn't know how much she wanted him to be happy, she felt envy over Yakumo, the girl who managed to make Naruto chuckle, or act with a smile, a warm smile.

One night after she and Sakura and Sasuke had tried together with Yakumo and Kakashi-sensei to find out their natural affinities, she had cringed, and something, inside of her, had broken. They had all made camp next to a couple of trees, keeping the wagons in the dark while the camp fire was a bit further away, so as to not give away the position of the supplies, Naruto was swinging up and down a tree trunk, making his muscles and even his chakra control exercises in the same go.

"Kakashi-sensei! I've got lightning affinity!" Yakumo said, raising her wrinkled chakra paper.

"That means you should probably ask Naruto some tips about it, he comes from Kumo," as Kakashi said that, two strong killing gazes settled on his back, making him shiver, "and they have perfected their Raiton training to nearly perfect levels, his natural affinity is wind, yet he can use Lightning like he was born with it."

Yakumo nodded, as Sakura, instead, had her paper actually turn to dust.

"That's earth Sakura-chan, of which I've got nearly nothing." Kakashi muttered, shrugging, as the pink-haired girl lowered her shoulders...typical.

"I can teach you medic-nin jutsus if you want, Sakura-chan." That, that had startled the group, the voice coming from Naruto, who actually was watching the scene from the tree, as he slowly landed without making a sound, and walking next to them.

"That or you can ask Yakumo-chan here for Genjutsus, there's no need for you to feel down." His voice was actually…caring.

"You've been learning medical jutsus, Naruto?" Kakashi queried, surprised, as the boy nodded.

"My chakra control isn't horrible, but it takes more time for me to get *Started*, with her excellent control, she'd probably surpass my ability in little time." Sakura actually blushed at being praised by someone she had deemed a cold-hearted jerk.

When Sasuke's paper burned, revealing fire, Kushina had chuckled.

"I've got a fire affinity too…I can teach you something."

Then, it had been Katsumi's turn, whose paper had cut itself neatly in half.

"And that's wind, good…with this, everyone knows their affinities." That had made her cringe inside, and nearly sent her on the verge of crying, why was no-one actually telling her something? Like *good girl* or *Hey Katsumi-chan! I can teach you wind techniques!* No, Sakura and Yakumo had gone straight ahead to query Naruto. Sasuke had followed her mother, and Kakashi had started reading a book.

"Want a hand?" the voice came from her side, where Kuro was happily eating out whole a brown rabbit, "Ops, my bad…burp, want a tail?" the black snake queried once more, with a chuckle.

"You could teach me wind affinity?" Katsumi didn't know what was worst: being ignored, or being belittled by a snake.

"You make it sound like I'm inferior to you, brat," Kuro replied, slowly getting into a recoiled position, "no moves barred, know that I could kill you more easily than you think. I'm offering you my help. The choice is yours."

Katsumi had gritted her teeth and shook her head.

"I'm not going to take a snake as a sensei. I'll rather ask Kakashi-san…" who was no longer sitting there, "or Naruto-kun…" who he too had left, "…but I won't ask you." Kuro, the snake, had left too. That night, she had felt alone. It was a feeling she hadn't felt ever in her life. Being ignored, avoided. She just had to be louder and louder then.

*Takigakure- Days later*

Yugito was yelling curses, as one of the bandits that normally would be easy to kill, had just then decided to use an overly enhanced fire ball, which was the size of a small rolling hill. As the ball came towards her most hated student, because even senseis can have their preferences, she growled as she partially transformed her left hand in that of the Nibi, to catch the flame ball with her flame hand.

"Hayari-chan! Get down!"

The next moment, a series of wind blade from another bandit was thrown at her, as she was forced to fully transform into her two-tailed form, or risk being badly cut.

Who was she joking? She *was* badly cut. These bandits seemed to hold no regards for the hero water's secondary effect, of taking once toll on life, in exchange for a tenfold increase in chakra. They came in bulks, and had been coming since they had been seen from far away. She had managed to make Mogura hide and have Shinkansen run back to warn the supply line, he was fast that boy, but still, it was like they were ants, popping out from nowhere.

A sort of water geyser hit her, sending her body to the side, Yugito managed with the flicker of the tail to push Hayari back, far enough for her to escape, if only she'd start walking, instead of being paralyzed in fear.

"The boss wants the Nibi alive! He's aroused since he saw her face on the bingo book!" one of the bandits laughed at the other.

"Here I was, thinking Jinchuuriki were tough stuff!" another one replied, as more water columns were spewed against the Nibi, who agile as it was, could do nothing when the amount of water could rival that of a tsunami.

_This isn't a C-level mission, this is a fucking S-level ONE! These guys pack a hard punch._

**You're not giving it your all Cat…that's why.**

_I…_

**You're just afraid of failing, but if you keep being afraid, I can only help you so much…**

_The students are safe now, right?_

**Yes, you wounded your legs to get them out of harms' way, so if they aren't I'm going to hit them with a stick.**

_I hope so._

"Nezumi Kedama!" as Yugito opened her mouth, spitting in the air a bunch of hair strands in the form of mice, they soon caught fire, splitting and falling on the ground like shrapnel, while the barrage of water against her form came to an end, as she stared, in front of her, at the damage she had caused.

Sure enough, a couple of them had fallen, and some were rolling around to try and take out the fire. She didn't waste time, charging straight in with her fiery paws and tearing them apart with brutality, using her tails to maximize the effect. By the time the brigands near her had been finished, she turned around, and there she cursed Kami.

Hayari just had to stay there, paralyzed in fear, where she had left her before. She just had to have a brigand hold a dagger at her neck, and she just had to be crying.

"We got your student, you monster!" the brigand yelled, in fear, maybe, as his hands shivered. It would have been easy for Hayari to free herself…any ninja would be able to free himself from that hold, but not a scared fashion-lover like her.

"**You'd best let her go**" Matabi growled, through the tailed form's mouth.

"Ha! Like I'd do that! Get back into your human form, right now!" as he held the girl closer, pulling her by the hair and making her cry, Yugito growled, but slowly, complied.

She was panting, her legs had however stopped bleeding, and now she saw the look on the man's face, a wicked smile, as, after all, he was the one with the winning cards.

"Now get naked!" he yelled at the woman, pointing his dagger at her, Yugito cursed Hayari. That was a perfect moment to grab his arm. Instead the girl had kept cringing.

"Did you wh…" he didn't finish, as his arm, first, and then his neck, were severed from his body by two swift motions of green and black blurs, as Hayari fell on the ground, and a hand appeared from behind the man's body, passing straight through it with a Ninjato, only a couple of words were echoed.

"Futon: KuroNaru Green Wind!" then, the Ninjato was removed as the man fell down on the ground, and a boy, no older than her Genins, stood there, bloodied sword in hand, looking at her, with his blue eyes, his stare, hardened in hate, slowly turning softer, and even more softer, as for a brief moment, he stood there, in silence, as did Yugito, while Hayari looked at her savior with tear in her eyes, seeing only blond hair and green clothes, with white armguards on, and probably a black scarf, he clearly didn't have much fashion sense, but it could be changed.

The boy slowly moved forward, as Yugito simply stood there, she had wanted to tell him so many things, but she hadn't expected to see him right there, right then.

She hadn't expected him to be so grown up, in so little time.

She hadn't thought about it much, but what was she going to say now?

Why was he here? Did he leave Konoha? Was he going to be hunted?

Was she going to have to capture him and bring him back to them?

No, she knew she wouldn't, they could probably run for the land of Earth, or maybe some faraway place.

Thoughts drifted through her mind as the boy with blond hair moved closer, a black snake's head on his open jacket, as the boy, in utter and complete silence, hugged Yugito tightly, who hugged him back.

She gently ruffled his hair, as she looked down at the boy, from her *height* advantage, to see the snake's black head emerge from there, with its blue eyes it even seemed intelligent.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." The snake spoke.

She stiffened for a moment, but as Naruto didn't seem to have even the remote intent on letting her go, she relaxed, whispering.

"Likewise…I've gone mad…my brother is here and a snake is talking."

Was this the meaning of her dreams? A snake *swallowing* her brother? He had a pet snake. Probably the dream had to do with *Shiro* and her own fear that snakes could eat sleeping babies if big enough. She was rationalizing it, as the snake, politely, spoke once more.

"You must be Yugito-san, then, it is an honor to meet you. I am Kuro, the slithering darkness of the night, the biter of the apocalypse, Kuro the wind snake." He spoke with a small hint of pride in his *titles* which made Yugito chuckle. He didn't seem like a bad snake.

"The boss is probably going to get punished."

"He…he ran away from Konoha?" Yugito hugged the boy more tightly, she wasn't going to let her Otouto get punished, they'd have to take him away from her by force of arms, Raikage's orders or not.

"No, his team plus another one were tasked with guarding relief effort supplies towards Takigakure, as it seemed that the bandits had left…he felt you nearby, and dashed off leaving his weights behind, without warning the others who are probably on his tail right about now..." the black snake had barely finished speaking, that a yell resounded into the small clearing made of scorched trees and dirt.

"Naruto!" The same yell, the same red-haired woman, the same stiffening of her little brother.

There was the whore.

The red-haired woman looked into the Kumo ninja with blond long hair and growled slightly.

Kumo was there? This wasn't the land of fire, and so obviously they could be there too, but still, why her?

Kakashi, seeing the tense interaction between the two, and seeing the dead bandit corpses, acknowledged the situation with Naruto dashing off quickly at the sound of battle, to help, while reckless, it was acceptable.

Yakumo stared with slight envy at the big rack the blond haired woman sported, while being more envious of the fact that Naruto seemed glued onto her by a hug he didn't seem intentioned to break.

Kushina was outright furious, but could do nothing as right there Kumo wasn't doing anything to break an alliance, and, no matter what, her son would hate her if she tried to teach that whore her place. No matter what, he'd still go back to Konoha with her, so maybe, maybe, she wouldn't kill her...

Katsumi stared at the woman, and was perplexed actually, maybe it was someone from Kumo that Naruto knew…but then why being all that expansive? Was it his girlfriend? She was too old for that however!

Sakura and Sasuke kept quiet.

Kakashi, with a grin, waved at the Kumo ninja who was gently caressing Naruto's head and said.

"I'm glad our alliance works!"

Somehow, more death glares than Kakashi could ever feel were directed at him…so many, in truth, that he felt the absolute need to turn tails and run back towards Konoha, possibly while yelling in a girlish scream.

He resisted said urge, as the groups *met*.

"Naruto-kun, please detach yourself from the Kumo ninja." Kushina muttered gritting her teeth.

Naruto slowly, too much slowly actually, let go of Yugito, who instead, when he turned around, hugged him back once tightly, and, while holding him there, the back of his head pressing against her breast, said with a smile.

"Oh my, Kushina-san, right? I thought you were old enough to be retired already."

"…Yugito-san right? Would you kindly let go of my Konoha's Genin?" Kushina tried a smile, with a tick mark appearing on the side of her head.

"I see a Kumo headband on his right arm, you mean the Kumo Genin that IS my brother that also IS the Raikage's son that YOU kidnapped with fake reasons and that YOU have forced us to lease to you? Are you speaking about this little huggable thing that you'll never, ever, hug like this in your life?" as Yugito said every word, the stare between the two woman became murderous.

"Calm down ladies, please…I'm sure there's no need to…" as Kakashi tried, to separate the two, from their intentions, the two turned to him, who took a step back.

"Doesn't matter, doesn't matter." Kakashi took a couple of steps back, before sighing and grabbing his Icha-Icha book…it was going to be a long day.

Katsumi moved decisively, grabbing one of Naruto's arms and trying to yank him away.

"He's my Cousin! He's with Konoha!"

"He's my teammate!" Yakumo actually added turning red in her face, as she grabbed Naruto's other arm, and started to pull too.

Sakura stared at such a scene, before clenching her fists, and moving straight in the middle of the two women and of the nearly torn apart Naruto said.

"Enough of this, we are ninjas from Konoha and we must show our manners to a member of the alliance, stop it!" as Yugito, growlingly, let Naruto go…Naruto was pushed forward, where Sakura was, as the two girls at his side fell down, he fell down on top of Sakura, his lips meeting hers.

The next second, all hell broke loose, as Sasuke, actually, stared with a murderous glare at the boy...even the fan girls! Had he no decency!

Kakashi was laughing out hard, holding his chest tightly, as he wheezed for air.

As Naruto actually dashed out of the way, Sakura realized by the strong evil death glare on her…that she *had taken* something she shouldn't have.

**Author's notes**

**This chapter *seems* more lighthearted towards the end.**

**It's needed, since, if anything goes as it should, the next one will hold the most heart-rending pains.**

**Q&A Time!**

**Narutoisdabomb: who knows…might as well be both.**

**Tamult: …stop reading my mind, please. IT's embarrassing if you actually know what's going to happen. Thanks for the Japanese words (I implemented them), and now I'll have to change the plot to make it even more saddening, depressing and deadly.**

**Tzeentch: Thanks! I personally prefer your brother Khorne, *blood for the blood god!* but if the god of plagues says he likes my story, I'm honored! (seriously, thanks for the review)**

**Argentorum: You're making me blush! Stop it! I'm going to have to kill half the main cast to stop blushing!**

**Thuglife16: well, it's usually the common thing, if you remove the hatred from Konoha, you have no reason why Naruto aims to become hokage in the beginning, (in the beginning, it's because he wants Konoha to recognize him as a strong ninja, then it becomes to *protect people*)**

**Mzr90: Jiraiya did his thing (risking his head, too), let's see if he's going to lose it or keep it.**

**General notes:**

**The grief/sadness thing Naruto feels in the cave of snakes is a toxin's effect, he's taking them *out* of the system thanks to the Kyuubi. **

**Kuro is awesome, any attempt at saying the opposite will result in even more Kuro-awesomeness.**

**Minato and Kushina actually divorced. *Torture* hadn't been told to the loving Yandere mommy!**

**If you haven't realized, in the chapter of doing the bell test, Kakashi is reading the scene that Jiraiya was inspired from in the hot springs, in the first chapters. (Who saw that gets a cookie!)**

**Sorry I couldn't time-skip to the chuunin exams. There's still one chapter before!**

**Ps: the mission to Takigakure isn't over. Obviously.**


	13. Breaking

Thirteenth chapter

Naruto had hidden behind Yugito's body, hoping for refuge. Instead, what he got was a nice good old grab by the ear by the Nibi Jinchuuriki, who then, staring defiantly at the other Konoha's Kunoichi, made a fierce grin and, like any possessive cat, marked her little Otouto as hers by kissing him on the forehead.

"…he's mine." Yugito said with a small grin, as he ruffled the boy's hair, while Naruto blushed lightly, groaning his embarrassment.

"Yugito-oneechan! That's not going to help me." His voice came out meekly, like that of any other eleven year old would be like. It wasn't the joking tone he used with them, or the sad or mature one, it was that of a boy who's embarrassed by his elder sister. It was completely different, and that, that made Kushina even angrier. Why couldn't he show or use that tone with her? Why was he at ease only within the grasp of that Kumo whore? Why couldn't he seek refuge behind her back, like any son normally would?

Chains rattled as the Nibi, this time, got into position staring at the red-haired woman. Sakura kept a slight blush on her face, as she meekly touched her lips once, before slowly making her way out of the center, when the killing intent on her actions made her wobble on her legs.

"Please, stop trying to seduce your way out of hag-hood, Baa-chan," Kushina muttered, as Yugito's eyes narrowed. Nails started to elongate just as chakra chains started to appear, but they were all stopped, in the end, by Yakumo.

"Can't we all just get along?" as she yelled that, an oni appeared with a giant one-handed machete, cutting straight in the middle between the two fighters, leaving a crack on the ground, before disappearing.

_That was a Genjutsu…but why isn't the crack on the ground disappearing? _Was Yugito's thought, while the blond Jinchuuriki, slightly growling, narrowed her eyes, before spitting to the side, in an unlady-like manner, but making it clear just where her respect was: rock bottom!

"So…we've got to catch up, my Otouto and I, so I'll be taking him for a couple of hours..." as she smirked, because Naruto's sparkling eyes meant he was clearly fine with that, she frowned, when Kushina shook her head decisively.

"We have a mission to complete so he'll come with us, because we'll have a briefing on what to do about this brigands, and if it turns out they are two much for us, we'd retreat: They clearly were too much for you…considering your team has been wiped out…" as Kushina said that with a slight smirk, Yugito growled.

"My team hasn't been wiped out, in fact…Hayari! Get over here!" as the Genin in question arrived, timidly, after having tried her best to hide with the background, and avoid her sensei's wrath, she felt her cheek being pulled.

"You damn idiot! I told you to run! Why did you stay behind, huh!"

"S-sorry Sensei, I was just…scared," Hayari stuttered, "I thought I was going to die!" tears began forming in the corner of her eyes, as Sasuke smirked at that, there was no way *he* as an Uchiha, would ever go through that.

"Sensei, is it clear now?" a voice spoke from down below, making Hayari jump a few step back.

"Mogura-kun! Stop scaring me!" Hayari yelled, as from beneath the earth, Mogura emerged, with metallic-like claws on his hands.

"Sorry, is that you Hayari?" as he queried that, raising a puzzled expression, he heard a very, very familiar chuckle.

"Mogura-kun!" he turned around in haste, just to get neck tackled and pulled out of the ground by Naruto.

"How's my favorite underclassmen!"

"Naruto-san! I'm glad to hear you!" as the mole-boy said that, reassuming a more humanoid form, instead of being curled like a mole would, he grinned, "I'm a Genin now! I heard about your kidnapping, I'm glad your fine." The word *kidnapping* kept getting onto Kushina's nerves, but she couldn't kill a Genin…yet. She still had a pink-haired whore to care about, who was in a sort of half-daze, shaking her head and staring strongly at Sasuke, all the while, however, having her gaze linger towards *her* Naruto!

"Sakura," Kushina snapped, as the pink-haired girl turned around with a *Hai*, "how about you go with Yakumo to collect wood for camping?"

"We're camping here sensei?" Sakura queried, a bit worried, as after all there were dead bodies, charred dead bodies, disemboweled dead bodies, and scorched trees.

"Yes we will." Kushina snapped back, as Kakashi sighed. Technically Sakura was *his* Genin, but he didn't want to make the group realize he was still there, reading Icha-Icha. The two girls headed over to the less scorched area, to gather some wood.

"Sensei," he sighed, staring at Katsumi's blue eyes which were looking at him, with a sort of pleading tone, "could you teach me wind affinity, please?"

"Oh…I thought you'd never ask," Kakashi saved himself in the corner from the girl's wrath, after all, he had actually forgotten about teaching anything to Katsumi, so now he stared for a moment at the perplexed expression of the girl, before saying, "you see, I wanted you to take the initiative, before starting to train you."

The girl's eyes widened as she smiled, nodding vigorously.

Meanwhile, Shinkansen dashed back, appearing like a blurry image and stopping next to Yugito, panting heavily.

"Sensei…Warned the…supply line…all right…here?" he breathed hardily, as he tried to catch some air in his lungs.

"Was that Jinton? The Kekkei Genkai known as Swift release?" Kushina queried, narrowing her eyes.

"Why should I tell? You'll know in a year, when we are going to come to your *Kidnappers* den to see *my* brother win over everyone else in the Chuunin exams," Yugito smiled warmly at the thought of seeing every single Konoha Genin biting the dust thanks to her Otouto.

As the woman, and at some point even the girl, began bickering, Naruto had slowly drifted from the group, staring at the bodies of the dead ninja.

"Kuro…do you smell it?" He muttered, having barely taken a whiff from the open mouth of one of the corpses.

"Yes…" The snake narrowed his eyes, "and I don't like that."

The duo nodded to one another, before slowly moving out…Naruto knew this would probably be a thing he'd regret, not spending enough time with Yugito now, but with Sai present, Danzo would know anything he'd tell his sister, and thus, he couldn't speak freely: he wasn't in enemy territory no longer, but he wasn't in friendly territory either, so he had to be careful. One wrong step and the situation would degenerate, and with all the Konoha Genins and his Oneechan still wounded, and catching her breath from the previous battle, it would turn sore fast…he had to remove the cause of the bickering…even if it meant that he, himself, had to leave them for the time being, to pursue the origin of the smell, a smell that he was familiar with. He felt a wave of sadness weight him down for a brief moment, why did he have to run? Why was it him who had to take upon his shoulders the weight? He knew the reason, the real reason…he was a good boy, he'd protect his Oneechans from harm, both Anko-Oneechan and Yugito-Oneechan. No matter what the price would turn out to be.

A couple of minutes later, Sakura, turning her head around, a bit worried as she had heard a twig crunch, felt relieved in seeing that it was only Naruto, with his dark green jacket, and even a bit blushing, after all he did kiss her.

_No! It was an accident, it doesn't count! My lips are pure and only for Sasuke-kun!_

Shaking her head, letting anger replace her embarrassment, she clenched her fist as Naruto slowly got nearer.

"Well? Already tired of your Oneechan?" She pouted, as Naruto, instead of saying anything, simply punched her straight in the face, knocking her out.

Yakumo heard Sakura's voice, then a faint scream, then nothing more.

Turning around, while carefully walking back to where she had last seen Sakura, a kunai in hand, she felt nervous.

She didn't know what to expect, but if Naruto was there, then it meant there was no problem, as he actually would save the day, he always did that, he always helped her out. No matter the task or her desires, he'd help her out. She, on the other hand, did her best in training. She was glad she had kept increasing the weights on her body, who, when removed, made her able to go on long journeys like this one, without wracks of coughing fits or worst. She was still weak, but now at least she was barely average. Before meeting Naruto, she had to lie down every fifteen minutes of run, every weight lifting exercise was a trauma, but she was strong willed to succeed. She owed that to her parents, who had stuck with her even when the evil part of her mind had emerged, who had sought help from the Hokage, the man who had saved her from a life of eternal prison, and to him, she was really grateful. The fact that the boy that was helping her resembled the fourth made her develop a slight crush, at first, but he was actually kind, he was actually gentle and he always helped her, no matter the hour of the day...she hadn't realized it, but she had already fallen in love.

As her mind drifted to other thoughts, a hit on the back of the head brought her down, and she saw pitch black darkness.

Kakashi had just finished pointing out Katsumi's exercise, cutting a leaf with wind chakra, to make a clean split, when he turned his gaze around in the clearing. The Kumo and Konoha teams were fighting one another with words and death glare, as both the blond haired woman and the red haired woman had started a sort of childish *I love Naruto* more game.

"He calls me Oneechan!"

"He calls me Sensei!"

"He hugs me!"

"He listens to me!"

Kakashi didn't know wherever to be envious or to be glad, as there was tension in the air even among the Genins.

"He's my upperclassmen! He's the strongest!" Moruka exclaimed.

"That green pepper?" Sasuke retorted.

"He's the Raikage's son!" Shinkansen pointed out, while shaking his head.  
"We have the Hokage's daughter!" Sasuke replied scowling…before realizing what the Kumo ninja had told him…something that even the blond woman had said before: Naruto was the Raikage's son? The son of the Kage of Kumo? The one known for going head-on against the Fourth and actually winning some times? He looked surprised around as Kakashi seemed unfazed by that, as Kushina and Sai were too. Katsumi, instead, was too busy staring with murderous intent at a leaf, and probably hadn't heard.

"That doesn't compare." Sasuke growled back.

"You're dickless," Sai actually spoke, staring at the group, "You're all dickless…we're pointing out the obvious, right?"

"You know…I've been wanting to ask since a while but…where *is* Naruto?" Kakashi queried, as he couldn't just keep quiet after seeing that even Sai, the silent background cover, had spoken, "And where are Sakura and Yakumo?"

As silence, finally, reigned in the small scorched plain, both sides stared at each other, then, subtly, an alliance was formed.

_Really, I'm glad I don't have a fan club. _Kakashi thought, as the group actually *stormed* out, to look for the missing three.

*The missing three*

When Sakura regained her consciousness, she was in a house. Other women stood there, many tied, gagged, and with dried tears on their cheeks, lined against the walls no better than cattle. She realized much to her dismay that her clothes had been slightly torn, on the side, but nothing more. She didn't understand why the women, and the girls, all tied there, were looking at her with grief. What was it? Yakumo had yet to wake up, to her side, as she tried to recall, oh yes, she had seen Naruto.

Did Naruto betray Konoha, capturing them? That seemed impossible…but there was a Kumo team nearby, but he was the one who spoke of *Teammates* and the rest, so why then spit on his own words by doing this?

Slowly, Naruto entered the hut, as he did that, he smiled gently to Sakura, before starting to unzip his pants.

Sakura understood right there and then what was going to happen in the next moment, and began screaming, albeit the gag on her mouth prevented her from. It was at that moment, just as the smiling Naruto tried to touch her cheek, as she was crying, that he stopped, a black snake's head piercing straight through his chest, Kuro, and then falling to the ground, assuming another aspect, that of a slobbering old man with grey hair and wrinkled skin, his true aspect, as it was, probably, a henge that had turned him into Naruto, a Genjutsu.

"You're lucky I followed the trail," Kuro hissed, as with his tail that cut like a knife, he undid the bindings on Sakura and on Yakumo.

"Wake her up..." Sakura was still shocked, but nodded, the snake, at least, knew his job.

It was meant to be *her* job, but she wasn't going to complain taking order from a snake, who had just saved her from being raped by a brigand that with a henge, had taken on Naruto's form.

"Now listen, you need to get to Naruto in the next three hours, do you understand me?" Kuro queried, as Sakura slowly nodded, why did she have to go to Naruto?

"The same goes for her." Even Yakumo had a side of clothing removed, and, now that Sakura could see, there were like three small holes on the side, like she had been punctured by three needles.

"What happened?" She muttered.

"Drugs, a nearly deadly mixture of aphrodisiac, exciter, and pain number, plus some mild Genjutsu use to make them fight till near death. You and your teammate need to get into capable hands within the next three hours, and I *don't* have hands." Kuro muttered.

"Isn't Naruto with you?" Sakura kept shaking Yakumo, who, slowly, opened her eyes.

"No, he's gathering the herbs for the antidote as we speak, I'm here to bring you out and to see if their chief has the antidote or not." Kuro hissed slowly, as he moved towards the door, slithering upwards and waiting, as the door opened for another brigand to come, just to have the black snake drop from the ceiling, swiftly tightening his body around the man's neck, and cracking it in one fell swoop.

"I can take care of myself. I'll create a distraction while you leave the place."

"What about the other women?" as Sakura said that, there were muffled screams from the other in the hut, they couldn't abandon them!

"The drug has probably already done its course on them: they aren't screaming to be freed, but to attract the bandit's attention. In three hours, you'll be moaning the name of the first man who grabs you, if you don't damn move."

Yakumo blushed, furiously, as said notion, but nodded, as Sakura slowly got up, helping her get on her feet too. The two Kunoichi stared just for a moment at the badly lit hut, before gulping down, and following Kuro outside, into the dirt road of Takigakure's village.

"So much for the village never been defeated by a siege," the snake hissed, as he curled into a sort of circle, before dashing off in a sort of midflight pattern, cutting a wooden wall down with the minimum noise, "it's all wood around here... and they fell to bandits"

"Wait…we're in Takigakure?" Yakumo muttered, as she shivered, "Didn't they say that the bandits had left?"

"Seems they didn't," Kuro replied, matter of fact, without caring about the brigand that was slouching into someone else's couch, in the house they had *barged* in, and who now had a gash wound on his neck, the proud result of the black snake's tail.

"How can you do that?" Sakura queried, slowly, as she was trying her best to act calm, even though the situation would have required her and Yakumo screaming while running out of there as fast as possible.

"Being awesome? Takes time," Kuro chuckled, a thing which sounded more like a set of hisses, but which was a chuckle never the less, "my affinity is Wind, I freely alter the chakra running through my body into wind chakra, and then when I lash out, I get the *cutting* result. Snakes have no arms or legs…but that doesn't mean we need to *bite* and be done with it. I'm a talking, slithering, cutting blade, charged with personality…but I'm glad you're taking it with stride."

"Stride?" Sakura meekly muttered, as she followed the snake upstairs.

"Well, there's only one way out of Takigakure for someone in your conditions… Don't tell me you didn't study geography at school." They had reached the last room, the one most to the south, which had a window that gave, down below, to the massive river that then poured into a massive waterfall. Something like more than twenty-five meters down below towards the water.

Sakura gulped.

"You can't be…" Yakumo grabbed Sakura by the arm, saying then with a clear and decisive tone.

"It will be fine: right...I can use that."

Kuro slithered into a curled position, before hissing.

"Well, I've got to go on information gathering, don't worry about me…and look for Naruto, three hours, then it's *broken* time." Yakumo nodded, before taking a deep breath.

She had to do it.

She could do it.

She created the Genjutsu, a bird, a big, bad bird, a bird with black feathers, flying out of the room's window. A real _illusion_, she thought to herself, _it's real_, she took a step forward, out of the window, slowly easing herself on the bird's back, and, even though Sakura was clearly afraid, she pulled the pink-haired girl through with her, onto the bird, before starting to fly out of there, towards the forest.

The next moment, a fire dragon swiftly began pursuing them, as the girls screamed while the bird, and themselves, were engulfed by it. The bird dispersed, as the two girls fell into the river below, hitting the cold hard water, and losing consciousness.

"Naruto isn't going to be happy about that," Kuro hissed to himself, before slowly crawling back into a shadow, and slithering through. A wooden village meant he could basically move through a wall by simply cutting a way through, by channeling wind chakra into his head, and then pressing it against the wall. He moved silently, as he made its way to where, once, the Takigakure village chief's residence had been. If he knew one thing about evil doers, was that they tended to live in the richest and best furnished places, after conquering them.

He kind of wondered why the boy had insisted on personally getting the herbs. He probably thought there would be other brigands in the mist, and if his clones dispelled, he'd probably lose the ingredients in the scuffle. Still, Kuro took it with a nice smile, the boy hadn't asked for the Jounin's help or for his Oneechan's one, but for his partner's: which on one side made the snake smirk, on the other side it worried him, because it meant that somewhere, his emotions were slowly dulling out. Still, why help the girls then? Kuro shook his head: there was no need to have his thoughts drift during his infiltration procedure. Better concentrate and then report back. He was the slithering darkness of the night, the biter of the apocalypse: he was Kuro the wind snake!

*Naruto*

The brigands had the clear smell of powerful, and mixed, toxins. He knew the mixture, as it was one of the first that Kabuto-oniisan had wanted him to memorize. One used generally by Amegakure nins, since it required a good dose of plants that grew only in highly humid climates, with drips of poison coming straight from the mouth of sea snakes. It wasn't going to be difficult to counter, but he had to work fast. The poison acted not on the body, but on the mind, breaking apart the receptors of pain, jolting those of pleasure, piercing through the brain's thought pattern until the victim slowly, but surely, lost itself to whatever source of pleasure there was, while becoming fearless of death, as it viewed even pain as pleasure.

Naruto would have preferred to call onto the Jounins, but, except Kakashi, he was sure that Kushina would have rather abandoned the girls there, only to have him brought to safety, through chains if needed, and then Yugito would have probably acted on it accordingly. That's why he had slowly drifted into the woods, the Jounin-senseis had been careless, thinking of it as a C-level mission, when in truth it was an A level, or even S-level, depending on the threat. Surely, there was a skilled poison user. It was the minimum requirement, as the poison, *Black Algae*, had a really short useable period, once the ingredients mixed, and unless injected into the bloodstream in the next two days, it would spoil, becoming nothing more than horrid tasting sea-water. There wasn't much he could do, but he could search for the counters. It would at least increase the time to treat the girls. He wasn't doing this out of piety, but he did have to respect Kakashi's promise. He wouldn't abandon his teammates, and it was better to have one more Konoha Nin on his side, rather than on *that* man's one. It meant that, when he left, he'd have one less Kunai in the back to look after.

He made no noise as he moved from tree branch to tree branch. Stopping only once he reached a clearing next to where the river forked, and made it more like a sort of swamp, than a flowery scene…where, in that swamp-like terrain a girl stood gathering herbs.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, the herbs in her basket could serve as antidotes, but the girl…while dressed in a simple sort of straight one piece pale green dress, her hair long and brown, that made her look like one of the villagers, however had a problem in her cover: she wasn't picking them up like she didn't know what she was doing. Her face wasn't under one under the effect of the drug, which meant that either *she* was a *he*, or that she was together with the brigands. She didn't look *roughed* up, and that too, made Naruto stare at the girl, if *she* was really that, then *she* had to be probably the poison expert, or the girl of a big-one in the bandit's camp.

Effortlessly, he slid down the tree trunk, making no noise as he slowly, but surely, began crawling near her.

The girl stopped, for a moment, sniffing the air, and turning her gaze around for a brief moment. She had smelled the odor of blood, nearby, that, and of charred meat. She turned her gaze to where two burnt masses, probably burnt logs, were slowly drifting down the current. She narrowed her eyes, as she made a dash towards the two.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. The two burned persons were Sakura and Yakumo's bodies, probably, which meant that Kuro had failed in his extraction duty. He should have felt saddened by it, but he was sure the snake was fine, as he could always teleport back to where the summoning scroll was located, deep within the forest of death. That just meant he'd have to do without Kuro for the reminder of the mission. No swift changing chakra nature. It was a pity, his friend really managed to make him crack a smile.

He stood silently, as the girl actually checked for the two girl's pulse, before biting her lip. They both had really faint heartbeats, and to treat them, she'd need another pair of hands, and as it was clearly something that the bandits had done, bandits that had hired her and her mentor…it just meant she had to choose which to save and which not to.

She decided through her very own triage…her hands started to work on the pink-haired girl, who was the one with the strongest chance of survival, leaving the flame of life in Yakumo to slowly dwindle away. The burnt girl was clearly a Kunoichi, she might end up having to cut her hair down a bit, as it looked burned towards the edge, but all in all, she hadn't been badly hit by the flame. The other girl had taken the full blunt of it, as her arms held hideous burn marks.

She saw the signs on the side of the girl, they had already *poisoned* her, with the venom that *she* had to create. She had a special variant done, so that it didn't matter what type of antidote one did, if they didn't had the unique ingredient, it wouldn't work at all.

Naruto kept hiding, jolting down in his mind as the *kunoichi* seemed an able medic-nin, and had actually *walked* on the water to grab and pull the two out of there.

He still didn't know where to classify her, but then again, she was saving Sakura.

She could have saved Yakumo, that would have made him *not* go against his promise to never abandon his teammates. Instead, she had decided to treat Sakura. So he had to go and treat Yakumo, just damn perfect. Slowly, he began circling around the medic-nin, no use getting caught by her while trying to grab his teammate. He kind of wondered where Sai had gone, he and his ink mice would have been very useful in providing distraction…that was when he recalled, like the idiot he was, that he had moved away from the rest of the group precisely because of Sai.

He had half a feeling that he was sending a letter to Danzo, concerning their meeting with Yugito. Half a feeling he *knew* was going to be real. Maybe he was keeping an eye out on him, albeit he was sure he had lost him through the bushes, his *ink* clone was too easy to detect, as it looked like a wobbly mass of chakra to his senses.

The girl sighed in relief, she had stabilized the girl. Just as she did that, injecting the antidote for her own poison, something too fast to detect dashed forward, pointing a Kunai at her neck, from behind her.

She had gotten careless, and had been surrounded by what looked like at least ten men, all covered with an Anbu mask depicting a wolf, all with dark green jackets and shirts and black cargo pants.

She would have thought of them as Bunshins, but each of them cracked the ground under which they walked, and the flowers had been compressed by their steps.

One of them, while another had pointed a Kunai at her throat, had swiftly grabbed the already at her wits end Yakumo, and had brought her, together with four others, away from the clearing.

"You don't care about this one?" The girl's voice resounded in the clearing, as her right hand was still on the girl's body, a senbon needle ready in her sleeve.

"She's not with us," one of the man replied, "we don't care…you added mangrove roots to the mixture…it's usually not used in the antidote preparation."

"You're a poison user?" the girl replied.

"You could…" a massive sword swung to the side of three out of four men, scattering them in puffs of smoke, as the fourth slid into a defensive position for the fifth one, that was the one with the Kunai at her throat.

"Bunshins?" the voice belonged to a masked man, who was wielding a large broadsword.

"Zabuza of the Hidden Mist," Naruto, hidden under his mask, muttered.

"Haku, you worthless tool, you got yourself caught?"

"I apologize Zabuza-sama," as Haku said that, not moving an inch, she flung the senbon needle in her hand backwards, hitting the side of the fifth one, who had to be real, with a powerful fast acting neuro-toxin, coated in the needle.

The puff of smoke made her eyes go wide: It wasn't him the real one?

She spun around, as the remaining one smirked, before raising his right hand.

"Sen'eijashu!" the snakes departed from both of his hands, fangs ready to strike and bite at the girl, who jumped backwards, thankfully helped by Zabuza who instead charged forward, his massive sword swinging down to cut the reptiles, who puffed away into smoke.

"Hum?" That got the mercenary interested.

"I could tell you…but I don't want to." The masked man teased, before dispersing into a puff of smoke, as the body on the ground of Sakura had disappeared.

Zabuza narrowed his gaze, before muttering.

"Haku."

"Yes, Zabuza-sama?" the kunoichi queried, curiosity taken the better of her, to her master.

"Let's get paid and let's leave." As the covered in bandages man said that, he turned around, keeping his hand on the handle of his broadsword.

"Who was that man Zabuza-sama?" Haku queried, as she quickly followed her master.

"Someone you should never fight against, Haku…he reeked of blood and snakes," Zabuza smirked, looking at his *tool*, "No matter who he was, we're leaving: we shouldn't stay too much here...they might start getting their hands on you soon."

"I am Zabuza-sama's tool, my body and soul belongs to you, master."

"Good girl." The duo of the mist left once more, leaving Naruto to slowly emerge from his hiding spot, where his hands had thankfully finished the healing jutsu to start mending to the burn marks, first and foremost.

He kind of wanted to go and thank C immediately, for having given him the sound of advice of starting with stabbing and burn treatments...which was obvious, as actually the most damaging jutsus were fire based, and Kunai's and Tantos, together with swords and dagger, the most common weapons used by ninjas. It took a while for him to get Yakumo stable and a bit more to grab the ingredients from the girl's basket, even the mangrove roots, and have the girl drink it through a mouth to mouth procedure.

Obviously, as fate would have it, by the time he finished the mouth to mouth injection of the antidote, Katsumi had been the one to find him.

Better yet, it had been one of Katsumi's clones that had been scattered looking through the forest for him.

"Y-You! You're going to get it, you Hentai! Dattebayo!" with that, the clone dispersed, as simultaneously, all over the forest, all the clones, and the original Katsumi, turned bright red, before doing an immediate change in course to reach her brother, who had been locked into, at least by her opinion, a tongue kiss with one of his teammates!

"I…I found Naruto! And Sakura and Yakumo seem wounded!" Katsumi said, blushing furiously, as Sai and Kushina nodded, the latter narrowing her eyes.

"Is Naruto fine?" she queried.

"Yes, he…he was kissing Yakumo!" as Katsumi screeched that, Kushina suddenly tripled her speed. Someone was outright ignoring the FIRST rule she had placed, and it had to clearly be Yakumo's fault. She'd teach her hard, so hard, that she'd retreat back to her house and go back to being homeschooled by Kurenai!

"Kaa-san! It's this way!" Katsumi yelled, making Kushina slap a hand to her head, obviously, Katsumi knew where Naruto was, not her, so, while muttering curses she slowed down, having to go at the highest possible pace for Katsumi…which wasn't enough in her opinion. She'd train her daughter to run faster, that she'd do.

Meanwhile, Yugito had been forced to rest, taking turns in the camp, together with the scowling raven-haired boy.

"You're scowling…again." Yugito muttered, rolling her eyes over.

"They're all looking for the Dobe," Sasuke replied, with a shrug and envy in his voice, "Instead of training me, the last of the Uchiha, into a strong Konoha's Genin."  
"Oh…so you left your sharingan home?" Yugito replied with a nasty tone, the *Dobe* insult wouldn't be left to slide without battling in blood!

**Can you please calm down, Cat? You've seen him no more than a day, and you're already fawning over him.**

_Where is Matabi and who are you!_

**You need to take it in strides. Instead of fawning, you just have to grab him. Tonight, when you're all having a nice sleep before tomorrow's battle, you just have to silently make your way to his tent, and there…**

_Oh, so you *are* Matabi. Now I get it._

"I didn't leave my Sharingan home! It just hasn't awoken yet, Kumo…"

"**Finish the sentence ..."** Naruto's voice was a low growl, as more than a hundred snakes appeared on his right forearm, all waiting for their boss' order to just bite the hell out of the Uchiha, to plunge their fangs filled with venoms into his veins, to bite at his neck and head. Naruto had appeared from nowhere, right behind the Uchiha, on his back, tied like bags of potatoes, were both Sakura and Yakumo, breathing lightly, with burn marks, already treated and plastered with cream.

Sasuke, cringed, at the aura the boy his age showed off, he felt the emotion of being powerless, the despair of being weak, he felt the same aura Itachi had on that night, the power, the strength, the difference between the two…Naruto was a mountain, not a rival, and he…he was a water flea, compared to him, compared to Itachi. He had to get stronger…and he couldn't get killed.

"…ninja" Sasuke let out in a mutter, as Naruto's snake retreated into his forearm, as the boy's red eyes turned back to their normal blue hue, before turning his happy face to Yugito, and saying.

"Yugito-Oneechan, can you help me with Sakura-chan and Yakumo-chan?" as the Nibi Jinchuuriki nodded, albeit taken a bit aback by the display of…of ferocity, of her Otouto, she nimbly untied the knots that held the girls together, placing each of them on the ground, and realizing just how well Naruto had patched them up.

"One better than the other…" she muttered, as Naruto, sighing, shook his head.

"They got taken, Kuro managed to extract them, but they probably escaped by luck. I found them floating in the river nearby, they looked like burnt logs instead of people…I don't know if it was Kami's decision, but they both held themselves afloat with their face upwards, or they'd be dead…"

"Are they going to be fine?" Yugito queried.

"They should be, if they rest. I need to go…" as he was about to leave, Yugito grabbed him by the right arm.

"Naruto, when is the last time you slept through the night?" as she queried that, seriously, Naruto's gaze turned sideways.

"Listen, Oneechan, I'm…"

"Answer the question." Yugito snapped back, as Naruto's eyes filled with grief, before nodding and replying, albeit hesitantly.

"Last…week, maybe? I'm not sleep deprived, three hours are more than enough, really," as the blond spiked boy said that, Sasuke's eyes bulged, three hours of sleep? Nothing more? Was he a machine? Was that why he was so strong?

"No they aren't…you're falling into your routine again, aren't you?" Now Yugito was worried, being in Konoha was making her brother's period in Root resurface, and his brutal training regime with it. She knew it, as for the first weeks in his being in Kumo she had seen it with her very own eyes, three hours of sleep, then training until he fell to the ground lifelessly, before starting once he could get up, and he always did get up. He never stopped getting up, harming himself just so he could train more. It wasn't something that had lasted, once they had realized it, and C had been adamant about how brutal that training could be on the growth and on the long term. Yet here he was, already going back into his old and bad habits, and the Konoha Nins hadn't probably even realized it.

"Is that why you're strong? Your routine?" Sasuke queried, he couldn't help but be curious about what could make a boy like him stronger than he.

"I…I just need to train and be stronger, Yugito-oneechan. I told you not to worry about me…I'm fine. I'll choose Kumo over Konoha always, Oneechan…I can't stop now however…I need to warn Kakashi-sensei, and your students…they're with the supply wagons, right?"

Yugito nodded.

"Hey, I asked you a question!" Sasuke growled, why was he ignored like that? He was an Uchiha!

Naruto's gaze turned to Sasuke, and as he hissed, he actually hissed, the following words.

"You are in no position to demand, murderer." He was just about to rip off both of the Uchiha's eyes from his face, but he refrained, because Yugito had grabbed his right hand with pleading eyes, kneeling to get to the boy's eye-level.

"Naruto! Please…" she didn't know what to say to her brother, she just knew this wasn't like her brother at all. He was darker, while her brother used to be so much happy, and warm, and now he was instead being evil, and resolute…he wasn't a boy, he was an adult, his eyes and his face darker.

"Fine…only because Oneechan asked me not to." Naruto muttered, meekly, before turning to leave the camp, he had people to warn.

As silence slowly descended, only interrupted by the campfire's crackling, and by the breathing, sometime erratic, of the two wounded girls, Yugito couldn't help but look at Sasuke, for a moment, before whispering.

"Why did he call you a murderer?"

The boy flinched, but tried his best not to say anything horrendous, Naruto could pretty well be in those bushes, once more, ready to attack him.

"I…killed, by mistake, one of his snakes."

Yugito raised an eyebrow, her eyes bearing a more evil glint in them.

"…and how, in Kami's name, did you kill him, I wonder, to make Naruto look at you like that?"

"An explosive tag…but it was a mistake, I was just searching for a kunai, not a…"

"Why would you need a kunai?" Sasuke felt the eyes on him, the same eyes a lion, or a panther, or a wolf, had on a prey they were about to pound. He knew he was digging his own grave, he knew it, but he couldn't stop answering the questions or she'd insist, and hit him, and if he hit back…she was a Jinchuuriki, those things were monsters!

"I had…a fight with Naruto."

"And you brought a Kunai into the mix? And…you used an explosive Kunai on him!" Yugito's eyes widened in understanding just what could have happened. The boy tried to murder her brother! He was nuts! No wonder Naruto had hardened so much, even people his own age wanted to kill him!

"I didn't know it was an explosive one! He was fine after that, but he decided to save his pet snakes, and so he stupidly threw himself to turn off a gas valve!" Sasuke had heard all that had happened at the trial, in which, obviously, he had come out nearly clean.

"Gas valve?" Yugito queried.

"The one in the apartment he lives in!"

"So he stupidly saved the entire apartment complex from exploding, while clearly gravely injured from the explosive kunai, suffering near fatal wounds too, I suppose, in the process…and you're still here as a ninja?"

"He's an idiot so it's obvious he'd do stupid things!" Yugito calmly stood up, and walked away, turning around just to say, with her eyes narrowed down to mere slits.

"Never insult my Otouto again…I will not be this merciful again, alliance or not." With that final growl, she left the camp, leaving the Uchiha to *scowl* alone, while she went to look for her own Genins, she had to get this news across and back to Kumo: the damn bastards in Konoha tried to kill her brother! The Raikage's son!

Kushina and Katsumi hurried back to camp with a really angry stare, while Sai remained unfazed. Not only had a mere Kage Bunshin greeted them when they had arrived, but it had also pointed out how Naruto had already brought Sakura and Yakumo back to camp, and that they should hurry back.

Kushina cursed herself, as she should have made sure Naruto understood what being in a team meant: he had to stay safe with the other teammates! Instead now they were simply moving, back and forth, trying to catch *her* son, before his own behavior brought his death!

There were brigands in the forest, not flies or insects!

"Kaa-san…" Katsumi whimpered, "Is Naruto-kun going to be fine?" as she said that, she stared at Kushina, whose right wrist had a chakra chain, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

"I don't know Katsumi-chan…but I'll be damned if I lose him ever again," as she bit her tongue, she stared at Sai, who kept being expressionless as always. She needed to keep a cool head, find her son, and make sure he learnt his mistakes.

*Kakashi*

Kakashi sighed. Obviously, he had been left alone, one of his Genins had gone with her mother, and her mother's Genin and he had been left alone, to scout near the village, which had brigands literally overrunning the place. It was like they had done some sort of national reunion. Yet, as he carefully stared from a nearby tree, his gaze narrowed, as he brought his bandana up, to reveal his sharingan.

There was a black snake silently slithering behind two of the brigands, and then, after curling in a spring-like manner, dashing through one's chest, while making a backflip, and using its tail to slash at the other's throat, without neither of the two realizing what had happened, all in the flicker of an eyelash.

"Naruto trained him well…" He muttered.

"Thanks for the praise." The boy chuckled, standing on a nearby branch.

"Real one?" Kakashi queried, without turning back.

"The one and only," Naruto replied.

"Sakura and Yakumo?" Kakashi queried.

"I saved them, bit burnt by enemy fire, but fine." The boy shrugged, so Kakashi simply nodded, before pointing out towards the village.

"Your partner is over there…he's at his fifth kill…I'm impressed."

"Aw…I told him to leave some for me, once he was done scouting!" Naruto whined at a really low voice level, before tensing up just so slightly.

"Kakashi-san…they use a poison that makes anyone a sort of fearless horny monster…so, do not trust anyone in there, because they won't be seeing reason anytime soon."

Kakashi nodded, narrowing his eyes… Who would have the guts to pull such a move?

"There also should be Zabuza of the Hidden Mist and one of his pupils, a certain Haku, she's the poison user. Pretty skilled, too…be careful, because she probably uses poisoned senbons."

"You did a pretty good job in gathering information, Naruto," Kakashi was honestly impressed. The boy was quiet, collected, and powerful. Mostly, he seemed a mini-Kakashi. If only he'd let him dye his hair grey and have the Ninjato ready on his back…he'd be perfect.

"I looked into a couple of Anbu-level books, and memorized them."

"You memorized Anbu-level books? And how did you get your hands on them, since they are *Anbu*-Level?" Naruto rolled his eyes over.

"Please, Anbu security has so many holes a Swiss cheese looks like a more valid defense. Really, not to offend the *all-mighty*," sarcasm in the voice, "Hokage, but he could make it better, at least *decent*."

"Memorizing them should be quite a feat however…"

"Kage Bunshins. I sleep very little. Each of them memorizes a sentence, then I have them dispel in order. Rinse and repeat twice, and I know…but now, how about we stop speaking about my skills, and we concentrate?"

Kakashi chuckled, it was like hearing an old man being the sensei, and he being the student asking questions, that's why he loved the eleven years old, he just wasn't an annoying brat, straight to the point when needed…and he did read the Icha-Icha novels now.

"So, we could swim across the river circling the village, and then make our way to where the Hero Water is, and…clog it. Without it, they should turn back to being normal brigands…I hope."

"Optimism from the silver-haired copy-cat ninja, woe the day has finally come," Naruto grinned, before muttering, "there's no need to swim, if we can dash through, I understand security and watches," he hastily said to avoid being interrupted by Kakashi, "but you forget, that I am the one-man army, so I'll make a couple of clones create a distraction, and in that moment, we'll move in."

"…Why is *a couple* of clones suddenly such a horrible number to hear about?" as the silver-haired Jounin rhetorically questioned that, Naruto did the hand signs.

Three other Narutos appeared on the branch next to him.

"Alpha, main gate, Beta, go from behind, Gamma, you stand ready to assist," as Naruto pointed that out, the three clones nodded, dashing off, "did I ever tell you *how* much I love the Kage Bunshin technique?"

"Yes…repeatedly, during training, and I always replied that it's something that only *you* could turn this advantageous…I'd barely do those three clones, in my best days. Your chakra coils should be empty by now, you know, if you were *normal*."

Naruto shrugged.

"Everyone's got their…"

Then, they heard the explosions.

"Time to start," the duo muttered, before assuming a serious face, and dashing off their hiding place, running lightly on the water's surface, like practiced Anbu, before dashing upwards, by using the wall of a house as a walking surface, Naruto carefully throwing from his left armguard one of his pocket knives, enhanced with lightning affinity, straight at the head of one of the two sentinels, who had been distracted by the fighting going on all around them…but not behind them, at the two dashing ninjas that came up from the wall's side. As Naruto jumped, he quickly reached for the pocket knife and placed it back in the armguard's socket, to have it ready for the next time, the white metal being stained by the red blood.

Kakashi threw three kunais, getting the second ninja, and a third one who had just raised his head from a hatch in the house's roof to try and understand what the ruckus was.

Naruto then whistled an infrasound tune, just in time for a black slithering mass to dash towards him at a speed rivaling sound.

"I'm sorry boss! The two girls got…"

"They're fine, I patched them up after saving them from the river," Naruto muttered, "where's the Hero Water taken from?"

"Behind the waterfall boss, there's the water source, but you wouldn't believe who's the chief of the scum here," Naruto bit his lips, staring at Kakashi, who had stopped to look back at the Genin, hoping for the snake to continue speaking.

"I know now…he just destroyed one of my Kage Bunshins… It's Aoi…"

Kakashi didn't know who this *Aoi* was, but Naruto seemed to know him, as his face had darkened.

"Aoi Rokusho, sensei," With the surname, Kakashi's eyes widened, the Nin had a pretty high bounty on his head, for having stolen nothing less than the sword of Thunder God, the Raijin no Ken, but he was supposed to have died, together with his other associates!

"Do you know him?" the copy-cat ninja queried, perplexed, as to just how much about such a missing-nin the boy knew.

"No. But Morino-san went for drinks with Anko-Oneechan once, and I had to bring Anko-Oneechan home after she had gotten drunk…" a sorrowful expression appeared on the boy's face, "and she told me, in her best sober tone, *Never leave me for a Jounin-sensei, brat*. The next morning I queried her for what she meant…and she told me the story."

Kakashi nodded, Aoi Rokusho had taken the help of Idate Morino, Ibiki's younger brother, to steal the sword, and then the two had been nearly captured, when the house they were in had crumpled under a fire started during Ibiki's torture, killing Aoi and Idate, but not Ibiki…who had cursed himself for not having acted faster in saving his brother.

"The second Kage Bunshin is gone sensei, our window of time is closing," Naruto muttered, "what do we do now?"

"You head for the Hero Water, and clog it, Naruto. I'll hold Aoi at bay," as the Genin nodded, dashing off, Kakashi turned around, starting to jump from building to building, explosive notes in his hand flying freely around, being extra careful to aim only at the roads, or the buildings, that clearly only had the bandits in.

He hoped it would be a good enough ruckus to attract their attention, as he made his way towards the biggest compound.

Naruto, meanwhile, stared to the side of the forest, where a familiar chakra stood by and mentally cursed himself.

**There comes the Nibi…**

_Yugito-oneechan shouldn't see me like this…_

**Hey, she's a ninja too, she should *know* your real strength.**

_I don't want to kill…_

**You're a ninja, you *have* to.**

_But Yugito-Oneechan stopped me from killing that guy!_

**Because it would have been a problem! You have to keep your wits…and duck, please.**

Naruto rolled to the side, avoiding a volley of Kunai, thrown at him by a Kirigakure ninja, who had a split sign on his headband.

"Missing-nin sign," Naruto sighed, why couldn't there be *only* brigands?

**Head down!**

Naruto barely got down on his knees, as another one appeared right next to him, his metallic gauntlet connecting to the previous ninja's one, passing with a wind howl right where his head was just seconds before.

"Two against two? It's just not fair…for you," Naruto tensed slightly on his right arm, a thing that Kuro, being over it, felt.

It was the prelude for the technique. As wind chakra flew into the Ninjato in the snake's stomach, so too it did into the combat knives that smaller snakes then grabbed, to bring onto Naruto's left arm. As Naruto jumped, avoiding the chain that was brought backwards, making a landing on the shoulder of one of the two, who only had a horn on his forehead protector, he pointed his left hand downwards, muttering.

"Futon: Sen'eijashu" The snakes dashed, the knives charged with wind chakra embedding themselves deeply into the ninja's head, while Naruto raised his right arm, smiling as he felt Kuro get into position, before jumping out of the boy's arm, his Ninjato appearing from his mouth, and doing a crescent move motion, stopping just barely behind the second ninja, and slowly slithering back into Naruto's arm, as the head of the ninja with two horns fell to the ground.

"I own the fox a drink," Naruto muttered, as he kept dashing towards the waterfall. He'd have to *exit* the village, while at the same time…a change in the ozone in the air, a thing he caught fast, luckily for him, made him jump to the side in time to avoid an enormous amount of electricity fly past him, cracking the ground and the houses nearby.

"Keep running Naruto!" The voice of Kakashi echoed in his ear, it did sound a bit worried, and in pain, but he didn't have time to turn around, as all he could do was trust in Kakashi, and keep running.

The silver haired Jounin was having a tough time. The only thing he was glad of was that Aoi sucked at Kenjutsu. His sword, on the other hand, wasn't at all as sucky as the missing Nin.

Kakashi had learned *not* to parry his blocks, but at the cost of numbing his right arm, which meant that now he was relying only on his left one, and his sharingan, to keep the man busy. At first the copy-cat ninja had tried to throw the man in a Genjutsu, but he had failed, miserably, to even *faze* the man.

"The Hero Water is a blast, Hatake-san!" the man said, with a chuckle, "I feel so good after just a sip! Just look at all the power I have now! So much chakra not even Genjutsus work on me!" As he swung the sword down once more, the electricity crackled through the ground, tearing a fissure on it as big as a basketball court, aimed at Kakashi, who dodged to the side, being in mid-air just long enough for Aoi to use another ability of the sword, sending electricity circles on the ninja, who disappeared into a puff of smoke, a wooden trunk taking its place.

"CHIDORI!" the copy-cat ninja dashed from his hiding place, his hand cackling with electricity, as Aoi opposed his own sword, made of lighting, at the Jounin's technique.

The sword cracked, faltering, as it didn't break, however, and the missing-Nin took the moment to pierce deeply into the copy-cat ninja's shoulder, sending electricity jolting down the body of the ninja, before slashing him on the chest, making him fall to the ground, blood seeping from the wound.

_Is this how I die? _Kakashi thought, bitterly, as his vision grew hazy.

_With a sucky team of three sucky Genins…and without seeing Sensei's son growth…_

"When you meet with Idate, tell him his brother will join him soon, as all of Konoha will!" as Aoi prepared himself to strike down the fallen ninja, better be sure, by beheading him, something passed through his chest, a Ninjato, or better yet, a Shadow Ninjato belonging to Gamma, the support shadow clone.

"This is why support is always needed, Kakashi-sensei…ramen when we get back in Konoha?"

_Obito…seems like I'll have to wait before meeting you…Rin is going to be the death of me when I get back._

"…fine." Kakashi muttered, as the clone patched him up to the best of his ability, before running out of chakra and dispersing.

Well, he could leave and live with that.

The original Naruto's run through the village was starting to turn bad, as more and more ninjas, and brigands, had decided that he, as a black and green flash, was the perfect trophy to catch. A familiar red-hair sight did nothing to stop him, as he passed by Kushina and Katsumi, not even stopping to say anything, as the first erected a chakra chain barrier, but not swiftly enough to catch her son within, as he was nothing more than a green blur, barely visible, while the second had grabbed a Kunai. She was with little chakra after her Kage Bunshin stunt to look for her brother through the forest, and had nothing more in her arsenal…except the Kunai.

A water column spew itself forward from the river near them, directed towards Kushina and Katsumi, as a thunder ray and a fire dragon did too, but even though they all impacted against the chains, the barrier held.

"Don't worry Katsumi-chan: Kaa-san's barrier is mighty strong." Kushina muttered, holding it with a smile, while at the brigands' sides Sasuke appeared throwing forward a flame ball, while Sai unleashed some ink lions, that were familiar to Kushina, very much so. Still, he had learned Ink Jutsus with her, and not before her, so there was no way he'd be the one to have attacked her son that night…or he'd be dead, simply and clearly.

"Where are the Kumo ninja when you need them? Isn't this also their mission?" Katsumi whined, as having left Sakura and Yakumo at camp, alone, was starting to get on her conscience, yet her mother had been adamant on not wasting time, and that the two could fend off for themselves, once awake.

To Katsumi's eyes, it was like if her mother was trying to punish the two girls…for something she had no idea. She bit her lip, staring, with her eyes, at the recoiling brigands, they obviously couldn't keep using all-out chakra moves that strong eternally, and they had probably finished, finally, their dose of hero water, as the only exit of the village, barring scaling the walls, was being straight where she and her mother were.

Still, as the bandits began flinging stuff at the barrier, even hitting it with rocks, Katsumi stared at the blind rage, at the foaming mouths, and for once, she actually looked at the enemies they had been fighting till them. Their eyes were white. Like rolled over, the majority of them had grey or no hair at all, and many outright looked feeble. Was this the effect of the Hero Water abuse? They would have probably killed themselves before long, so why insist on it, what was it that these guys wanted? It didn't take much, before the majority of them were subdued, as without chakra, nor Hero water, all the guys could do was foam as Sasuke, with an even more hateful look, took down most of them with clean Taijutsu swipes, while Sai used his Ink Lion to render unconscious the majority of them.

A low rumble in the background made her shiver, was it some sort of enemy, unknown till then, that was going to come and take them? It seemed to come from right underneath them, before the ground gave way, plunging half of the entrance to the village to the same level as the river below, as a tsunami hit the few who were still standing, swiping them away along the debris and the rocks.

Katsumi hit her head against something hard, and in her brief half-dazed moment, for a split second, she saw what looked like a black silhouette swim fast next to her…it looked like Kuro, but it had wings. _Snakes don't have wings,_ was her last thought before her eyes closed to the darkness.

She woke up, rolling to the side to cough out the water of the waterfall, looking around, her emotions a swirling of pain, for her probably broken ribs, and fear, for she saw none of her teammates around.

She had washed up on the side of the river, a bit far from the actual river bed, and mud and slightly bended trees stood all around her.

She hoped the tsunami hadn't hit camp, where Sakura and Yakumo lay senseless.

She hoped her mother was there, somewhere.

She hoped her Oniisan would come to save her. Instead, what she got was a sharp hit on the back of the head, by something, or someone, and then she was knocked out once more.

Kushina woke up groggily, she had just had a dream about Naruto being engulfed by an enormous water whirlpool, and she had seen him drown right before her eyes…no, it had to be a bad dream.

Still, why was she wet? Completely, from head to toes, and why was a fish beating on her stomach with its tail? She recalled, the ground caving in, the waterfall actually deviating course, she recalled the destruction. She stood up, a jolt of pain coming from her right leg. It was broken, probably, but she clenched her fists, even if it was, she had to find her children.

"Naruto! Katsumi!" she yelled, worried, before adding, "Sai! Kakashi-san! Anyone!" mud and torn trees were everywhere around her. More than that, she had no idea where she was. She thought about the three pronged Kunai…should she use it, and call Minato? No, Minato would probably goad her, or maybe even refuse. No, he wouldn't, he'd be there for her…she knew he would. As she sent the chakra pulse, Minato swiftly appeared at her side, at first, his look was one of anger, but then it slowly shifted into worry.

"What is…this?" he queried, perplexed, looking around at the disaster he was in, but seeing no immediate threats.

"The waterfall…the ground broke, the river came in, we were swept away…Minato…please, find Katsumi and Naruto." Minato nodded, before making the signs for the Kage Bunshins, which dashed off in different directions, while the original one stayed behind, as Kushina grabbed him by the arm, and whispered to him.

"We need to talk, Minato…"

*Naruto*

Naruto had slowly reached the passageway, hidden to all but not Kuro's keen senses, and had swiftly slid inside, going behind the waterfall, staring in front of him at what looked nothing more than a crystal clear pool of water, unguarded, without anyone trying to drink from it, or anything similar.

**That's the Hero Water? Not even a sort of sparkle in it?**

_Yeah…It seems a bit too easy._

Naruto neared the pool, looking around perplexed, before deciding to try it out.

**You know…no, never mind. **

_A sip won't harm me I suppose…I do need to make sure it's the real thing I have to destroy._

Naruto slowly got on his knees, readying himself to drink from it, when a small rumble coming from above made him lose his footing, for a brief second, and his face fell head-on inside, as he gasped for air, moving backwards and recoiling from the pool, he coughed, before feeling his chakra suddenly bubble up, expanding, while a warm sensation covered his entire being.

**I say it's the real deal…destroy it now!**

_I'll use a Raiton to break the rock around, make the cave collapse, and probably have the water empty itself into the river…_

**Nice plan! I don't see anything wrong with it...**

Naruto did the hand symbols, and then, slowly but surely, dropped his hands on the ground, electricity charging up.

"Raiton: Electromagnetic Murder!" What he hadn't expected, was the voltage of the thing to go high. Really high, as all the chakra he poured in was no longer normal chakra, but highly powered chakra from the Hero Water. The water, under the spark of the electricity and its heat, evaporated into thick mist, as the ground gave in below and also above, while Naruto's thoughts came into a repeated motion.

_I hate you, hate you, shit, hate. Rocks, Kuro! Fly…WINGS!_

Kuro had grabbed the boy through the use of his long tail and then, while his initial idea had been to *pull* the boy by using his higher part of the body as a focal point, and then follow him outside as *dead* weight, he had felt something stir at the back of his *neck* area, and, in a blink, he felt muscles in places he never thought possible, and with a wide *neck* movement…they were out of the cave, straight through the waterfall that was collapsing, together with the village, as Kuro was…flapping the wings on his back, while holding Naruto tightly with his tail.

"We're flying." Naruto muttered.

"And here I was thinking we were swimming." Kuro replied as he tried, at least, to get down lightly. Not being used to the wings, he pulled a muscle, probably, as it suddenly became a sky-dive into the twirling stream below. On his own, Naruto didn't yell, he probably was already dead, and this was all but a dream. Yeah. A dream with Kuro that had bright wings; after crashing into the stream, they had been carried for a good distance, before being roughly deposited, courtesy of Kuro's navigating, back onto dry land…if it could be defined dry.

"Well…their pretty at least," Naruto muttered, staring at the bright orange and purple colors of the feathers, that stood on the back of the snake's *neck* area.

"They are not aerodynamic for piercing through," Was Kuro's first thought, as he scanned the area they had ended up in, mud and trees and some debris, "and they're orange and purple...at least green and brown…but orange and purple? A *Kill me please* sign would be a better way to make my presence known."

"Well…can you retract them?" Kuro actually gave some thought on the matter, as slowly, the wings neatly folded along his sides making it seem like they weren't there at all.

"Now I look like a cobra." Kuro whined, "I don't like those pricks."

"You're the only snake who could find something to whine about while in this situation." Naruto retorted, chuckling, as he stood to sit, the fox's chakra had already done its course in regenerating the burnt tissue on his hands from the overuse of the electricity or the broken bones from the fall into the stream.

**You know, I could have been sealed into the body of a kid whose dream could have been gardening, astronomy, maybe even fishing. I wouldn't have minded fishing. Instead no, I had to end in the body of a ninja, who forces me to save his sorry ass or die a horrible death.**

_Hey…I had no choices in life till I was five. I understand, but there's not much I can do._

**Except setting me free?**

_I told you I'd look into it, I'd like *not* to die._

**Details…**

_Like mentioning what could have happened there in cave?_

**I honestly didn't know that…I thought you'd just die of old age, and free me before in a try to earn redemption for your corrupted soul.**

_So says the Kyuubi, also known as the evil incarnated._

Naruto rolled his eyes over, sighing, as Kuro slowly crawled inside of him, as he got up.

"Naruto!" the owner of the voice was Minato, a person that Naruto, who was currently half beaten up by the use of chakra, didn't actually want to meet. Why couldn't it have been Yugito-oneechan? He had felt her nearing the village, but still, where was she now?

"Yes, Hokage-sama?" Naruto queried, with an annoyed tone. He was pretty sure this to be a hallucination, just why would the Hokage be there? This could also explain why Kuro sprouted feathers, in truth this was all a dream that waited just the right moment to turn into a nightmare.

"You're fine if you can be that cheeky with me, brat." Minato muttered, as Naruto got up, Kuro slithered silently inside the boy's covered in mud jacket.

"Yeah…and if I'm dead then this is hell, because I'm seeing the last person I ever wanted to see."

"Now listen here, as the Hokage I demand…"

"I wonder if I can have miso ramen appear out of thin air now that I'm dead…" Naruto muttered turning around and trying to concentrate, "Miso ramen, miso ramen, miso ramen."

"You really think you're dead?" Minato twitched an eyebrow, as he rhetorically asked that question, before punching straight in the head the boy, "Here, now you know you're alive!"

"Ouch! You damn bastard! I'm making you pay for this!" As Naruto replied that, Minato shrugged.

"I'm a Kage Bunshin, boy, and right now I've got to disperse to warn the real one where you are." As he so did, Naruto thought, for a moment, that he could run somewhere else, but the fourth suddenly appeared in the flash from nowhere, having a wide grin on his face as he grabbed Naruto and, in a moment, they both were gone from that place.

The next instant, Naruto was hugged tightly, not by a blond haired Jinchuuriki, but by a crying Kushina.

He would have whined, heavily, about the situation, if the woman's tear hadn't made him, at the very least, feel the need to be considerate about it. He stood in silence, until, not knowing what to do to make the red-haired fountain stop crying, he opted to pat her lightly on the head.

"I'm glad you're fine…" Kushina muttered, drying her tears, before starting to slap him on the face.

"Now repeat the rules I told you, you IDIOT!" Before Naruto could actually say them, he was slapped again, and again, and once more.

"Don't do this to me again! I don't want to lose you ever again…please…stop doing this…" then, she hugged him again, before slapping him again, and hugging him once more.

Naruto's cheeks were already sore, and Kuro was hissing something about being given permission to bite her face off, when Minato winced for a moment, probably having received some important news.

"I found Sai, while Sakura and Yakumo were left untouched in camp, Kakashi is fine and has retrieved the Sword of the thunder god…but there's no trace of the Kumo ninjas…or of Katsumi."

Kushina's eyes narrowed, fiercely, as her hold on Naruto made the boy actually yelp in pain, before being forced to free himself or actually *be hurt* by the strength of the grip.

"Naruto," Kushina muttered with anger in her eyes, "do you know anything about this?"

"N-No, Kushina-sensei…Couldn't Katsumi-chan simply be somewhere in the forest?" Naruto queried.

"She was next to me. That means she should have ended up close by." Kushina muttered, "If she's not close by, then she has either moved or someone kidnapped her."

"Yugito-oneechan would never do that!" Naruto whined.

"Kushina-san, I'll have to side with Naruto-kun on this one," Minato muttered, "there's no way they'd do something this stupid, not when they'd be the first to be framed…I probably haven't looked for her well enough."

"My daughter will come out, or the Kumo ninja's heads will roll, Minato." Kushina growled back, as tears began forming on Naruto's eyes: it was time to use his secret move. The puppy-eyes of doom, coupled with the words he hated the most in the world, but that he had no choice on the matter now: he needed to avoid his Oneechan being wounded, or trialed, he needed to protect her!

"B-But…they're my friends, Kaa-san!" all it took was one word, one word and puppy nearly crying eyes, and Kushina's idea about the Kumo ninja, about her daughter maybe being kidnapped, stopped, instead she sighed in relief, probably her daughter was just somewhere, and she was a ninja too, what need was there to worry too much? She was an adult, perfectly capable of taking care of herself: surely she'd be somewhere nearby.

"M-Maybe you're right, Naruto-kun…we aren't even sure if it's them, after all…"

Minato stared in silence at the boy, and narrowed his eyes. That was an underhanded trick, of that, he was sure. The fact that Kushina hadn't realized it, however, made him start to think if something was actually wrong in his ex-wife or not.

As everyone was rounded up, except the Kumo ninjas, who had disappeared leaving behind the supply wagons, and its personnel, and as the konoha's supply wagons were stashed neatly next to the Kumo one, both groups of workers began entering the various houses of what remained of Takigakure, and started handing out help, bringing out the drugged civilians, and trying their best to calm them down…it would probably take years, if not decades, for most of them to get over the fears they now had, for some, a lifetime wouldn't suffice.

Katsumi, however, didn't show up.

By the time Minato had used his move, to go back to Konoha and call for Anbu squads to look around, it was too late, and as the Kumo ninjas had already crossed the border, and reached Kumogakure, there was no way to question them without passing through the Kumo officials.

Officially, Katsumi Uzumaki had turned missing in action during her first S-rank mission, leaving her mother stricken with grief and her father actually enjoying a brief moment of political relief, as a *martyr* who didn't hesitate to send even his daughter into the fray, even with the risks there were.

Unofficially, Katsumi woke up tied up, being carried on the back of a broad shouldered ninja with an enormous broadsword, who had a girl following him closely.

"Zabuza-sama…the test subject has woken up…Orochimaru-san will be pleased."

"Yeah…as long as he pays me."

As only gurgled and muffled screams came from Katsumi's mouth, she was weak…too weak, to free herself.

*Konoha-Months later*

"So…Chuunin examinations are coming up," Naruto muttered, letting his hand pass through his long blond hair, that was tied in a pony-tail at his back, reaching till his broad shoulders.

His whisker's marks were more pronounced now, as a height spurt had sent him on the same height a fifteen years old would be. His words echoed with the coarse voice of an adult, no longer with that of a kid, and as he stared perplexed into the eyes of Yakumo, who was looking at him with a determined glare, he understood what the girl wanted to do.

"YOSH!" they both yelled, preparing the moon crescent motion, "LET THE FIRE OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHTLY ON US TODAY!" with that, the sweeping motion of their fingers was completed, and as they stood proudly on a sandy isle, waves crashing against them, with the sun rising on their back, Sai actually felt his impassible mask getting creaked, as he wanted to bash them with something, anything.

"Yo!" Kakashi said, waving a hand at the group, *his* group, after having dropped Sasuke and Sakura to Ebisu, together with some unnamed kid he didn't care about, and having taken this one, since with the loss of Katsumi actually becoming a reality by the minute, Kushina's rationality had slowly, but steadily, declined. To the point where she had tried to force Yakumo to wear a red haired wig, and calling her Katsumi in more than one's occasion.

"Kakashi-sensei, have you read it, huh?" Naruto grinned, as he and his sensei were probably the only two to know.

"You mean Icha-Icha Forbidden Fruit? I'm at the fifth chapter! It's the chapter of the forest, where a red-haired sensei enjoys the forbidden taste of both of her kunoichi's lips!" Yakumo, for a second, felt a strange…sensation…like it had happened a long time before, but he couldn't quite place it.

"Yeah, I wonder where Jiraiya-san takes his inspiration from!" Naruto grinned, "You should just read ahead till the ninth, now that is wonderful!"

"Yeah? Damn, don't spoiler it for me, Naruto-kun!"

"Don't worry Bro." as the two fist-bumped, Sai kept staring with a puzzled expression…what was all this? Was this the same Monster-kun he had seen so serious? Yet at the same time so frail? He was a twirling of emotions…and surprise.

On their first night of rest, after travelling back, Naruto had gone to sleep lamenting a terrible headache. The next morning, he had grown out of his clothes, earning blushes of approval from both Yakumo and Sakura, and a wide chuckle from Kuro. The medic-nins had no answer for that, albeit Naruto had developed one, since, after all, the only thing he had done the others hadn't was a sauna with the Hero Water.

"You mean the chapter with the shower scene?" as Kuro spoke, Kakashi narrowed his eye, while looking at the snake.

"Isn't he smaller?" he queried, pointing at the black snake.

"He's not Kuro, it's his son, Yoru (night)," as Naruto pointed that out, the snake chuckled.

"A lot of people make the mistake, they told me I'm his splitting image when he was smaller…anyway, my affinity is with fire," as he said that, he actually showed off better his red eyes, "which means that where I go, I scorch the ground! I am the trail blazer of the plains, the burner of Armageddon, I am Yoru the fire snake!" as he said that, Naruto grinned.

"It's another Kuro, practically. I'm starting to think he cloned himself." Naruto pointed that out, as Yoru eyed the ninja pretty badly.

"You know I'm going to make you pay for that snarky comment in Ramen Bowls."

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, a perfect clone...with a fiery appetite," as he snickered, he yelled in pain, as Yoru had bitten him on the side of the cheek, leaving burnt marks behind.

"And be thankful I didn't put any poison in there!"

"What a … bright personality." Kakashi ducked out of the way, as the snake, engulfed in flames, tried his best to pummel the copy-cat ninja.

"Come back here and say it to my face!"

As Naruto chuckled at the scene, he felt a light breeze pass over his face, ruffling his hair. Well, time to get started on the great plan soon.

*Somewhere in the land of fire- Casino*

"Damn…it's my fifth win." Tsunade stood there, completely shocked, she had won the jackpot, five times. Five, as in, when she had won it once, Nawaki had died, twice, it had been Dan, but five? Five wins meant something bad, something really, really, bad was going to happen somewhere. She looked at Shizune next to her, holding Tonton, she too was shivering, as Tsunade prepared herself for one last time at the slot machine. Surely, the machine was broken, she'd lose once more and it would come out as a mistake…

"Tsunade-hime! I found you!" Jiraiya's familiar voice made the slug princess turn around with an angry scowl.

"What is it, you idiot!"

"It concerns your great grandnephew…" Jiraiya had searched for the woman, the only one who could probably help him out in convincing Minato and Kushina to let the boy go before due time, Senju Tsunade, and had finally found her, right there, in a small shady town filled with casinos. What had made him hope she could it, no matter what, was her natural curiosity: certainly she'd be intrigued about having a grandnephew she knew nothing about, and then she'd tell her about her Grandniece Katsumi's disappearance, so she'd be even more set on coming back.

"I don't have a grandnephew." Tsunade muttered, perplexed.

"Well…turns out you do," the slot machine ringed, it was the sixth jackpot in a row, "and Minato and Kushina have nearly started a war for him."

**Author's notes.**

**Chuunin arc: Begins!**

**Heart-rending moments: We finish the Kuro-awesomeness arc! (This is sending you on a sad wave, I know) We lose Katsumi (nobody cares) we hint at what happened in the forest between a mother and two whores! (reality, fiction, who cares? You decide!) **

**We see some Orochimaru-ness.**

**We have Naruto get a great bulk of three years more in his physique…but is it only good stuff? We'll see.**

**Why did Yugito-oneechan leave and not intervene in the village scuffle? We'll know! Eventually. We hope. **

**Q&A time:**

**To all who said it was a nice chapter: Thanks!**

**Angeldoctor: I hope so too!**

**Dbzsotrum9: she probably does, having been assigned as his sensei by Minato, but she still hasn't used it yet…so who knows?**

**SeigZeon: Just you wait when I add another three years on the platter.**

**Dragonskyt: Thank you…and by the way, you'll see an all *new* Sakura in the next chapter…a bit of a !dark Sakura… burn marks…bad stuff.**

**Ezcap1st: Kabuto is in truth the Alfred to Naruto's being batman. We all know that Kabuto is a good guy…deep down.**

**Tzeentch: Sorry, I always confuse you lot. You gods could use easier names. Hayari *slipping out of nothingness* was intended, so that she could re-appear, and dis-appear. (It's going to be explained why…later on) and I write a full chapter every day, I correct it and then I post it. (Yeah…which means that when I double updated on the same day…I wrote those words once in the morning and once in the afternoon) (I am not a man-made god-machine, I swear I'm human!)**

**Fuyutaro son: If, and I repeat If somebody gets through his thick skull, it's still going to take some time.**

**Imsabbel: and more there is…Jiraiya is going to do an awesome job…or die trying. (ARGH shouldn't have said that!) (I'm joking, really!) (Am i?)**

**Flashohol: Nah, Yakumo *isn't* addicted, it's just Naruto remembered Kakashi's words, and used but a slight pinch, but with that, I showed off that he does have poisons and drugs in his jacket…who knows the later uses.**

**Argentorum: Kuro defeats lots of brigands this time, and even one of the demon brothers…and his true nature is revealed.**

**Tamult: Oh…I want to say something, but I can't, because it would be a spoiler, darn it. Just…read on.**

**Lumpeyeone: Thanks for your psychological profiling…but you should have sent it all as a single walltext, because I ended up having to read it through bits and pieces (and I'm afraid some pieces were missing).**

**Mzr90: No. The day that happens is the day Naruto dies, gets filled with Hay, and gets used as a blow doll by Kushina. Which won't happen… "NO, PUT THE HAY DOWN!" "B-but!" "I didn't PUSH you in that direction you damn character, out of the lemon area, now!" "sn-sniff, 'ttebayo"**

**General questions:**

**The normal plan would have had them go into the village the next day, but Naruto *accelerated* the terms.**

**Zabuza and Haku will recur…as will Katsumi…but she'll appear just where it hurts.**


	14. Surprising

Fourteenth chapter

Burnt marks weren't beautiful. Burnt marks were horrible, sickening, pieces of brown and dark brown flesh on one's own body made of perfect pink and smooth skin. It didn't matter the quantity of soap, of oils, of scents, those brown stains stayed there, no matter what. Sure, she was happy she wasn't foaming like a sex addict over a brigand, sure, she was happy she at least got back home, to her loving family, instead of what happened to Katsumi-chan, but those burnt marks on her side, those burnt marks made her feel uncomfortable. It wasn't like Ino, Ino had done a couple of easy level missions, and had come out unscathed, obviously crying in a corner of staying behind Shikamaru and Chouji, she, instead, had done what? Sakura left her right index and thumb pass through her now shorter hair, and stared at the window. She wasn't ugly, no, it was clearly she wasn't, but her forehead protector was probably the only reason she was no longer called *forehead girl*. She stared out of the window, at the white clouds that passed lazily, at the ninjas passing by on the rooftops or the civilian going about their work by walking on the ground. She slowly let her left hand pass over her right side of the body, where the burnt mark, like a sort of coiling snake, stood from half of her right arm till the back of her shoulder. She bit her lip. Yakumo, Naruto's teammate, didn't have a single scar. At first Sakura had thought she had been lying, under the use of Genjutsu, she did take a good deal of the flames for her, after all. Instead it had turned out the truth. Her skin was smooth, and no amount of disrupting Genjutsu had proven the opposite. The difference between them had been simple, Sakura recalled having yelled at Naruto on why there had been the difference of result with the same treatment, and to that, the boy had replied, she still recalled it. He had told her about Zabuza and her being healed by Haku, and she had cringed. She could have ended up dead, actually, and she was now fussing over a burnt mark.

It sounded stupid, but as she kept looking out of the window, at the people who walked around, lazily, without any burnt marks, without any imperfections, not that she could see them, she gritted her teeth, and moved out of her room. Sakura Haruno grabbed her long sleeved red dress, it was a bit warmer now, but still, she wouldn't wear a sleeveless one. She wore her long shorts, and then she walked down the stairs, to leave, without saying goodbye to her mother, or father. Maybe she just felt the need to make them worry. Maybe she just wanted them to feel something, instead of keeping on the snarky comments she had received, when battered, bruised and imperfect, she had come back from the mission and had been reprimanded, not hugged, she had been reprimanded for not having done enough as a ninja, and that maybe, it was due time she admitted she'd never be worthy of being a ninja, and of the gruesome path that they took. Still, she wouldn't give up, not with Sasuke in the same team, not with a high chance there wouldn't be competition, as the other new addition, a Genin called Yagura, was more a Taijutsu practitioner like Rock Lee. She should have felt sad for Katsumi-chan, she should have, but she couldn't, it was the way of the ninja, to live and to die in battles, Sakura had no doubt her friend from the academy was dead, carried away by the sudden failing of the ground, probably because of the overuse of high rank jutsus by the bandits. She walked silently, on the side of the dirt road, aiming towards the training grounds she was meant to be in, together with Sasuke and Yagura. It was by the side of the hot springs, with hot scorching water. Scorching, she hated scorching things, why couldn't it be freezing cold? She'd have accepted it being even dirty, cold, mud, but not scorching hot. She couldn't stand it: it made her scar itch and burn again. She slowly reached the position; Sasuke was already there, staring at her for just a brief moment, before turning to watch their sensei, Ebisu, a tokubetsu Jounin, specialized in training ninjas till they became elite. Usually, he'd be training Konohamaru, the third's grandson, but Kakashi had called in a favor, dropping the kids on him, as he had taken over the team that Kushina-san was no longer able to teach.

Sakura flinched, as the Jounin-sensei explained their exercise. She didn't want to be vocal about it, she didn't actually want to be there, to try and put a step in the water, the hot water, the boiling water, the scorching water, was there fire down below? Was there a deep horrible fire that burnt the skin and melted the fat and made ugly burnt marks? She let out a cry of pain as she felt in the water, after a few steps, and, like if her life depended on it, because in truth it did, she swam back as fast as she could, getting back onto the fine porcelain ground tiles that made this part of the street, near the hot springs, so pretty, so much different from her. She coughed out the water, and started shivering, while Sasuke, not caring in the slightest, kept trying, jumping back on the dry land, when he realized he'd fall. He had already trained to walk on surfaces, if water was the next step, then so be it. Yaguro was doing his best, albeit it was like he was cheating, skipping on the water through sheer use of Taijutsu, which meant he was pretty skilled in that, rather than using chakra. They both would probably get the exercise done by the end of the day, she, as a failure, would try and try again, with no use.

When the sun finally settled, Yaguro and Sasuke left, and even Ebisu, after a while, did so too. Sakura was drenched in the water and the night's breeze would probably make her feel even colder. Yet, she couldn't move. She could only gasp, looking at the porcelain tiles, as tears would run down her cheeks, mixed with the water from her wet hair, raining down on the perfect porcelain tiles. Why couldn't she go back to being beautiful? Naruto had healed Yakumo without leaving scars, of any type. Maybe he could help her.

"Why are you crying?" the voice interrupted her from her situation, and as she dried her tears and face, she turned her gaze upward, to the man wearing a wolf-like Anbu mask, dressed in what looked like black, but in the shimmering light of the hot springs, obtained by the use of lanterns and the light burning of charcoals and incenses, it showed speckles of green, with dark red armguards, filled with senbon needles, and small blades.

"I…I was not crying!" Sakura replied, with a snap, he could be an Anbu for all she cared: she had better things to do then amuse a higher level ninja, like, perhaps, take on her mother's job, and become a Housewife for someone important.

"You were," the voice replied, slightly amused, as he gently offered his right glove, covered in thick black gloves, "it's nothing to be embarrassed about," he added, softly. Whoever the man was, he had to have kids, as it was the sole reason he could speak so gently, easing her into actually grabbing that hand and then being lifted off with ease. Sure, she was a lightweight, but the strength of the man's grip was something different.

"A ninja should show no emotions," Sakura muttered back, biting her lower lip.

"A ninja is not a tool, miss, we have emotions, refuting them is refuting reality," the man spoke again, before gently ruffling her short pink hair. She could have bitten back, but the man's words and the man's actions, just, it made her feel at ease in his presence, it was soothing, silent…

The next moment, she closed her eyes, tiredness taking the better of her, as she drifted into sleep, straight there, in the man's arms.

"Yoru, understood how it works?" The voice spoke, slowly.

"Yes Boss, your gloves are covered in a light sleep inducing toxin, that through the use of fire chakra channeled into it, can become airborne. The fact *we* are immune to toxins makes it a perfect weapon for finesse, but not for battle," The black snake slithered out from the man's jacket, before staring at the girl, fallen asleep into his boss' arms, "father told me you had a knack for stealing women's hearts".

"If I know him, he told you that he slept with double my number in snakes," Yoru chuckled at that, "let's get her back home."

"He also said you were a softie, deep down…didn't you hate her in particular, however?" Yoru hissed slightly, as Naruto, because it was him, grabbed the Kunoichi and placed her on his back, dashing off in the night.

"She has purpose…and one more kunai with me," he muttered, "is one less kunai for him," he added.

"You know I don't care boss. Remember the ramen though: I like mine spicy like a volcanic eruption" Naruto rolled his eyes over, in his mask, making it an unseen motion.

"You always eat…" Naruto stopped midway, sidestepping and avoiding a handful of snakes directed at the place where he would have been, hadn't he changed his trajectory.

"Hey Assassin-kun! I found you!" the voice came from someone that Naruto knew, as his heart skipped a beat.

Yoru kept quiet, feeling his boss tense. This wasn't going to be pretty at all.

Anko stood, with four Anbu-class ninjas, surrounding the man.

"You're going on a date somewhere, Assassin-kun?" Anko queried, chuckling, "I can't have you do that, can we? We just found out where..." the Kunoichi had begun speaking, in the hope of the Anbu surrounding the assassin to take the first move, and incapacitate him while she distracted him. No such luck.

As the one behind charged through, Ninjato in hand, Naruto didn't need to see him, Yoru felt it, and tensed in the appropriate places to signal it. In the blink of a second, he sidestepped, throwing Sakura at the ninja's feet, making him lose his balance and sending a senbon straight into the man's mask and through it, to pierce his skull through the use of his wind affinity.

_One down, _Naruto thought, as he jumped in midair, to avoid the other two and their kunais.

"Can't dodge in mid-air, Assassin-kun!" as Anko threw a kunai swiftly, it impacted harmlessly against the ninja's armguards, placed in a crossing position to maximize the defended area of the chest.

"Well…you can parry…" Anko muttered, the two Anbu's below turned their gaze upward, readying the hand signs for their respective jutsus, as one used air and the other fire, a great ball of flames sprouted forward, surrounding and possibly incinerating the man, who disappeared from view.

"We got him!" one of the Anbu guards said, as the other grabbed their dead comrade, to move his body to the side, and to take a look at the pink-haired girl.

"No we didn't! Keep your guards up!" Anko yelled at the two, "He's toying with us! There's no charred body around, and I'll be damned if I know how he managed to get away, but still, he's around!"

"Precisely," the voice spoke slowly as two assassins appeared at the back of the two Anbu-class ninjas, one with a lion mask, the other with a hare mask, "Your mistake, however," the voice was coarse, really coarse and guttural, "Was thinking there was only one of us." The two Anbu guards fell, their throats slit, without being able to do more…

Anko felt the typical cold metal on her neck too, and as her neck hair tensed, she could hear the voice behind her speak once more.

"I'm enjoying this, I know I shouldn't…but I'm enjoying this…The thrill, the hunt, the blood, I'll kill all the evildoers in Konoha, those you protect, those you hide, those you make look innocent, and when I'll be finished Konoha will be clean, perfect, and empty," with those final words, he dashed away, together with the other two, leaving the pink-haired, and fainted girl, on the ground, right in the middle of the three Anbu's corpses.

Anko bit her lip, clenching her fists, this was another Orochimaru. This was worse than another Orochimaru. At least Orochimaru was being taken seriously, this guy, instead, wasn't. He had just killed three Anbu ninjas, with a speed that rivaled that of Maito Gai in his best days and he wasn't alone, at least three. This meant it had been an organization all along; an organization which enjoyed hunting down Jounin and Anbu-class ninjas to make them suffer. Many had outright called quits, and for once, Konoha was in dire need of ninjas to do missions, and not because they had died. The Chuunin exams were around the corner, if these assassins weren't caught by then…it could mean a political disaster. They had tracked him down through a pattern the assassin used to follow. The targets were at first only low-level Jounins, then he had started splitting into doing a Jounin-middle level and an Anbu-low level, then it went with Jounin-high level, and Anbu-middle level. He had yet to touch a high level Anbu, but he was getting stronger and stronger. Whoever he was, whatever he used, he was smart.

Even in the fight, he didn't use Ninjutsus to easily recognize his type of fighting skill. He had a hostage, which had forced the first guy to come in with a sword, albeit the girl would have been normally sacrificed, but who can call cold-hearted an Anbu, when you're speaking of an eleven year old girl? She didn't even have her forehead protector on, so she had to be a civilian…had it been a Kunoichi instead…

Anko touched the pockets of the girl, and removed from within it a Konoha's headband protector, that made her narrow her eyes. He had removed it from the girl to make her look like a civilian hostage! He knew full well what it would mean not to, since Shinobi and Kunoichi could be sacrificed. She didn't know wherever to applaud him or curse him, they had lost three Anbus not to save a civilian, but to save a Genin. Maybe the girl could be interrogated, later on. She too felt a bit of a headache coming, as she was the only one left alive…

"Maybe he doesn't touch girls," she mused the thought, shaking her head later on, "nah, probably thought I was too much for him to fight," grabbing the pink-haired girl, she dashed towards the hospital.

*Next Day*

Naruto stood quietly, his white armguards perfectly clean and polished, as Yoru was peacefully sleeping, making hiss sounds every now and then. He stood, his legs crossed, on top of a tree in the forest of death. The mission *retrieve Tora* had suddenly jolted from a D-level mission to a C level one. Because the cat had, obviously, decided that he would now try his best in hiding in the forest of death.

"Pops is always sad when we have to capture Tora-chan," Yoru muttered, "He thinks it's unfair to take away his freedom for the enjoyment of that big fat woman."

"I know…the day I'll leave Konoha I'll bring that cat to Kuro. So he'll be fine." Naruto replied, before closing his eyes and sighing.

"I can feel you, Sai." Sai, his *teammate* and Danzo's associate, appeared on an ink bird behind him, slowly lifted up from his hiding spot in the middle of the tree branches.

"This forest of death seems peaceful, Naruto-san," he stated.

"Dead things make no noise, Sai-kun," Naruto replied with a chuckle, "nor do they answer your questions, or speak with you, or tell you stories, they do not make noise, as they do not breath, nor eat, nor drink, or anything else you might think of…dead only rot."

"Macabre as always Naruto-kun," Kakashi had in the meantime climbed the tree with his feet enhanced with chakra, "still, shouldn't you all be searching for that cat? The forest is big, and while you already *did* hand in the entry for the Chuunin examination…this is training I tell you."

"I know Kakashi-sensei…and if I weren't disturbed, I'd tell you that I'm sensing Tora right now," Naruto muttered, pointing towards Nord-east, "two hundred meters, on a rock near a creek, taking the sun."

Sai nodded, before dashing off with the speed of his Ink-bird.

"I'll tell Yakumo-chan she can stop cutting down trees in the forest." Kakashi muttered, as he slowly descended once more. The death of Katsumi had probably impacted on Naruto: Kakashi knew that, at least, he thought it had to be that. Naruto was the one he had tasked to clog the water of truth, but who would have known that doing that would have made half the city collapse? Naruto had been pale for most of the following hours, and when he had woken up in that *nearly* adult body, he had simply started laughing for a good part…completely snapping out of it after Kushina had slapped him, telling him to keep calm, because Katsumi-chan was certainly going to be alive.

Kushina-san had been positive on that for a while, but signs of her mental instability had increased with the passing of time. At first, Yakumo had been considered a threat by her, then a friend, then, at times, they had spoken about how nice orange would look on Yakumo, and the day Yakumo had tried something orange, Kushina had outright gone with a red wig, and forced the girl, for the day, to answer only to the name of Katsumi-chan.

They had been alone, when that had happened. Kakashi shivered, recalling how for an entire day of private training, Yakumo had been scared senseless, the chakra chains around her making her look like a dog on a leash, sapping away her chakra, preventing her from casting Genjutsus of sorts to try and free herself. Naruto had arrived however, and, while saving Yakumo…he had delivered her another fatal blow of sorts. It had taken Minato's efforts combined with that of him, to calm her down long enough to seal away her chakra. Kakashi shook his head. His sensei had it tough now, not only was his ex-wife mad, but he had probably even lost his daughter, and his son didn't even look at him.

Still, Kakashi couldn't help but feel that the boy needed someone to vent out all of his pent-up rage, or at least his distaste for the world.

Something else, however, bothered the silver-haired Jounin.

_The forest of Death is too quiet. This isn't any different from finding Tora in the village, I wonder why. _Kakashi had barely finished the thought, that one of the forest lions inhabiting the area decided to prove him wrong, advancing towards him with his fierce teeth in show, roaring against the ninja, readying himself to pounce at him.

Kakashi wasn't much bothered, his Icha-Icha book in one hand he prepared his Kunai to knock out cold the lion, but as he expected his Kunai to land on the lion's face, he felt nothing.

Turning his attention back to the area, he realized the lion was gone.

"…Did it just disappear in mid-air?" Kakashi was curious about this strange fact. Maybe he shouldn't have been too distracted by the book.

As the silver-haired Jounin shrugged, keeping reading Icha-Icha while going where he had last left Yakumo, a dark green and black snake hissed his final warning to the lion somewhere away in the bushes, and the lion, wincing in pain, meowed in reply.

The mission done, the team went to report, but just as they were about to enter the Hokage's office, Anko emerged from it, stopping for a moment, Sakura next to her, her gaze down.

Naruto stared at her, and she stared back at him, while Sakura, realizing that Anko had stopped, looked up to see Naruto's team, and Naruto himself, and couldn't help but feel her throat parch up, in nervousness.

Naruto wasn't the eleven year old boy that Anko had cared for, he was now taller, leaner, and, to Anko, he looked precisely like the assassin on the rooftop, if not for the different color of the armguards, and for the fact that he wasn't wearing a mask. It was too little not to try and think that her little bundle of happiness had turned into an assassin, a soaked in blood one. There were too many things they had in common. She couldn't help but feel saddened by it, was it really always like that? Were all the people she truly liked, and felt the need to care for, turning out to be blood thirsty monsters? She didn't want to hear his voice because she didn't want to feel her doubts come true, by recognizing it. She didn't want that, and so, she simply walked through, not a single word uttered.

"…Onee…" Naruto tried, his voice dying in his throat as Anko simply passed him by, not speaking to him at all. Sakura tailed straight behind her, not even looking at Kakashi, who had abandoned her and Sasuke to another teacher.

Kakashi raised his only visible eyebrow in surprise. Not even answering was a new thing for the purple-haired Kunoichi: he'd have to ask his contacts in Anbu about that, he felt hurt when not even Sakura said anything, but he expected that, he knew it would hurt, but there was no choice in the matter, sensei had decided that he had to keep an eye out for Naruto, without Kushina able to. They entered soon afterwards, and Kakashi couldn't help but see the look on Minato's face tense slightly, before shaking his head.

"Did you get the cat?" Naruto pointed to Sai, who, nodding, grabbed a scroll and *unsealed* Tora the cat, who began meowing heavily, and screeching, before Yakumo grabbed him and held him thanks to her *oni*'s hand.

"Nice to see you've gained control of your reality Genjutsu, Yakumo-chan," Minato said with a smile at the girl, who nodded, with a happy grin, before handing the cat over to the Daimyo's wife.

"Good, there are no more missions for the remainder of the day, so you're all free to go, except you Naruto, I need to speak to you in private," as Minato pointed that out, the team left Naruto alone in the office with the Hokage.

"Listen…I've been thinking," Minato muttered, "that you might enjoy Konoha more," Naruto rolled his eyes over, "if you transferred to the Namikaze mansion, Kushina-san would surely appreciate having a relative nearby and…"

"Order me then, don't ask me to, you're the Hokage, right? Make it a long-term S-rank mission." Naruto retorted, sarcastically.

"S-rank? Come on, D-rank would be better…if it ever was a rank, no, I won't order you to…but your…relative, Kushina-san, really would like to see you, Naruto…she was more hurt by your words back then than by Katsumi's gone missing."

"I just told her the truth, Hokage-sama," Naruto stressed the *sama*, "her daughter is dead, and same applies for her son, she just needs to accept reality, that is what she needs."

Minato hardened his glare on Naruto, but said nothing.

"Fine, then can you explain why someone goes around killing Jounin and Anbu class level ninjas, using wind affinity,"

_How did he find that out? _

**You probably charged the senbon needle too much, and some wind chakra remained.**

_Sheesh._

"Who dresses like you, and who also has white armguards?"

Yoru tensed in the way to silently mention *trap*, and Naruto narrowed his eyes back, before shrugging.

"It this assassin dresses stylishly with white armguards, it means he has to be following my fashion sense."

Minato hadn't yet given out the details of the assassin, nor his *red* armguards, had Naruto corrected him, or used that as a defense, it would have nailed the coffin.

"You know we could torture you…" Minato muttered.

"Then you'd have hell to pay, as my father is coming soon enough, and unless you go all the way and kill me, I'll be sure to report it to him when the time comes, and you can't use a mind dive on me to check it out." Naruto replied.

"Are you threatening me, brat?"

"I'm telling you the truth, Hokage-sama…I'm a weapon leased to Konoha, who's given a choice. My choice is Kumo, will be Kumo tomorrow and the day next to that, and I will go back to Kumo, nothing, no-one, and not even Kami himself will make me change this idea!" as Naruto said that, Minato sighed.

"People change. I'm sure you'll change your mind, maybe after getting yourself a girlfriend too, how about that Sakura girl? You know she asked some questions about you earlier…like where you lived."

Naruto raised an eyebrow perplexed.

"Doesn't all of Konoha know where I live? I mean: the fact that I'm piling paralyzed bodies of civilian in front of my house, covering them in pink paint, should be a big enough sign."

"Maybe she just wanted to be sure," Minato shrugged, "anyway, you have personally been assigned to act as the *guide* of a recently returned to town important clan's head, the head of the Senju clan, Tsunade Senju. She's also the grand-daughter of the first Hokage, and her grandmother, Mito Uzumaki, belonged to the Uzumaki clan of which you are a part of, so, in a certain way…you're family." Naruto growled under his breath.

"Listen here, I'm Naruto. Naruto and that's final, if Otou-san had a surname I'd use it, but since he doesn't, I'm Naruto, son of A, son of the Raikage of Kumo, and that's final. I'll deal with the woman, but I won't go around having my cheeks pinched," Naruto's growl turned slightly feral, as Minato chuckled.

"She's also one of the legendary Sannin so trust me when I say that if she does pinch your cheek, you'd lose half your face." Naruto rolled his eyes.

"So, where is the woman?"

"At the Namikaze mansion of course, she's using a guest room," Minato smiled while Naruto's murderous aura started to grow thicker by the minute, "Now, now, *Naru-chan*, go along on your mission, before I actually force you to transfer there," Minato's tone grew icy cold, as Naruto, for once, felt the urgent need to actually bring actions into his words, but instead, he nodded, and turned to leave.

"I'll mark this one down as a free mission. He didn't ask me what level it was after all." Minato whispered, as the door closed behind him. Well, with that, he was hopeful that Tsunade would actually convince the boy of the will of fire, and to remain in the village. Since working with people that liked the village didn't work, why not try with people who disliked it?

Still better than Danzo's alternative of using torture and mind breaking on the boy…that would go as a last resort though…the assassin, whoever he was, wasn't alone. Still, Naruto fit the bill, with his use of Kage Bunshins, but then how did the other assassins come with different masks? There had to be more than one of them, of that, he was sure. Unless Naruto could read out the missions and prepare beforehand his plans to con the Anbus, but the Anbus were the best there were in Konoha, they wouldn't lose to a brat!

Naruto sneezed, as he cursed the Hokage for a moment, before walking down an alleyway, where a rectangular rock stood in wait.

Iruka-sensei was looming over the rectangular rock with a really angry face, and, just as he was about to hit it, the rock, demonstrating good preservation senses, dashed to hit against Naruto's legs, making a small boy with a blue scarf, to pop out from under the carton box painted to resemble a rock.

"Konohamaru-kun! You cannot…" skip lessons, that was the usual drill of Iruka-sensei, but Konoha's history was boring, and he didn't want to go home to Asuma-san, who was a heavy smoker. Still, Iruka's voice had stopped speaking, and, as Konohamaru raised his eyes, he stared at a broad shouldered boy with blue eyes, long blond hair tied in a pony-tail on his back, till shoulder length, white armguards filled with senbon needles and combat knives, and dressing with a dark green jacket, a dark brown shirt and black cargo pants, who had a curious look on his face, which seemed to have whisker's marks on it.

"Playing truant?" Naruto queried looking at the boy, who stood up before pointing his finger at the older one.

"I'm Konohamaru Sarutobi! My grandfather was the third Hokage, he sacrificed himself to kill the Kyuubi and…" Iruka paled, drastically. The *Kyuubi* being inside the boy that was listening to the boy's rant with an interesting expression.

"…So I'm not playing truant!" with that, the boy huffed his chest outside, in pride, before he felt himself being pulled up and then thrown straight into Iruka's chest, who grabbed him while letting out a gasp.

"I am Naruto, and I hate long winded idiots," with that, Naruto kept on walking down the road, with Konohamaru's face turning pale, as the boy had simply thrown him out of the way without regards or concerns.

"Naruto! This is not how…" Iruka would have wanted to scold the boy, but the stare he got back…he froze on his spot, words dying in his throat, as he recognized that stare of hardened anger and gleeful hatred, the same stare the boy used before brutally murdering an already defenseless Mizuki.

"Did you say something, Iruka-san?"

"Nothing…nothing," grabbing Konohamaru, Iruka dashed away, leaving a slightly satisfied Naruto, who was, however, reprimanded by Yoru.

"Did you have to do that?" the snake hissed.

"What? He bumped into me and expected me to be sorry." Naruto replied, sighing deeply as he assumed a slightly more tranquil walk, there was no way he'd go there *early* if he could go there *late*.

"Throwing him against Iruka-sensei wasn't…" Yoru felt the boy tense up, and sighed, "There's a story behind this, isn't it?"

"Yeah…when we came back, and Katsumi wasn't with us, *he* gave the fault to me. Not to her being weak, but to *me*…she was weak, and unfit to be a Kunoichi, like Sakura and the rest of those fan girls are. If they can't understand that, why should I care?"

"Still…I think you should have a chat with Pops eventually, you know?" Naruto sighed, letting his right hand pass through his blond hair.

"I suppose…it's getting a bit out of hand. There's something wrong with me, I know…thank Kami Kuro is a good counselor."

"Don't tell that to me…you know that Teuchi is thinking there are fairies in his shop? Orders for take-away pop out in increasingly quantities, and he has no idea where the food ends up. He hired three more people to manage to dish out the ramen quantities," Yoru chuckled, "so, anyway, we're being followed."

"Yeah, and judging by the smell, it's something who takes little to no baths all the time."

"I took a bath last month boss!" Kiba yelled, as he gave away his position from a couple of meters behind Naruto.

"Gave away our position," Shino muttered, appearing from behind Kiba, and shaking his head, "Hinata-san, please come out too."

As the timid Hyuga girl actually emerged, she whimpered slightly, before starting to fidget with her fingers.

"Shino, Kiba, how are my two troublemakers doing today?" Naruto said, with a smile, as he moved closer to them, until he was right in front of Kiba, at which point he threw him a straight punch to the side of the face, sending him against a wall.

"I told you never, ever to give away your position Kiba! Do you want to die on your first mission, huh!" Naruto yelled, grabbing the boy by the sides of the jacket, as Akamaru barked at the sight of Yoru, who hissed a chuckle back.

"I'm…I'm sorry boss, did you have to hit me?" Kiba whined.

"You only understand with hits, now, have you understood the lesson?" as the Inuzuka nodded, Naruto sighed in relief, letting him go, and then turning to Shino with a small smile.

"Why were you following me?"

"I was curious," the voice came from a female voice, that one belonging to Yuuhi Kurenai, who appeared from the side of the wall, "as to why my team was refusing entering the Chuunin exams."

"Well…" Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "I've got no idea too: why are you lot not entering?"

Shino was the one to speak, slowly.

"When Sensei asked us when we would be ready to take the Chuunin exams, Kiba replied *the day Naruto says we are*…sensei then got curious." Naruto turned his eyes to Kiba, who was now fidgeting just like the Hyuga girl was.

"Sorry boss, it's just, I can't even scratch you the times when we spar, if you're in the exam and we fight off, I've got zero to none chances. I know it, I'm not ready yet." Naruto sighed.

"Which is why I'd like to speak with Kakashi-san about combined team training," Kurenai spoke, "in this way, I'll also see how he's taking care of Yakumo-chan, I homeschooled her for a long while, and I'm hoping she's gone over her…fears."

"Oh she has done that, trust me," Naruto chuckled, "Well… I'll talk to Kakashi-san when I see him. Right now I've got a mission to escort someone around town." With that, he waved goodbye to the three, but mentally noted down how stupid he had been.

_Konoha's got the Byakugan, and it took me now to realize it!_

**Which means?**

_They can see through masks! If one of those Hyuga goody-two-shoes gets sent to capture me…I know it's slim, but still…_

**My…you're an idiot.**

_What is it?_

**Just coat the mask in chakra: it will prevent the byakugan from seeing through towards your face, because all they'd see would be the flickering blue of the chakra.**

_You know, I'm starting to think you're being too nice recently._

**Well, you did age considerably…and you still are. You're probably going to die soon.**

Naruto froze. What? What was the fox saying now?  
**Wait, you didn't understand? You took a sauna in Hero Water, that thing, normally, increases tenfold the capacity of the chakra coils, by burning up cells from the human body ten times faster, you, instead, got completely submerged in it through the fog, and you just got lucky that you were immediately thrown into the water of the waterfall, and then my chakra coursed through your veins. Instead of dying, you aged faster. You are actually a fourteen or fifteen years old. Still, the process will take time to stop. You might, in the following years, reach the twenty-five or even thirty mark, before actually returning to your normal aging way.**

Naruto relaxed, letting out a sigh in relief.

_Don't scare me like that! I thought I was going to die tomorrow!_

**What? You probably lost a good chunk of life, twenty years at worse…shouldn't you be crying over it?**

_I'm a ninja. Self-pitying will get me nowhere, and hey, the lifespan of a ninja isn't all that grand._

**That's why I should have ended up into a fisher boy. I love fish. **The Kyuubi actually pouted that, before turning her gaze to the cage she was in. She could see the Uzumaki chains rattling just outside it, waiting. The boy had learned to play her same game. She could try and force his way out, as the seal, with the increased aging of the boy, had been weakening, but those chains…would be waiting. She had started to come to terms with the fact that, either the boy freed her as he had promised, or that she was bound to get moved into another container at due time. She snorted, retreating to the depths of her cage, and waited.

Naruto reached the Namikaze mansion, for all his time in Konoha this was the first, actual, time that he had been there. At the gates, where two chuunin ranked ninjas stood, probably waiting for him, he shrugged, before coughing out.

"I'm here to escort Miss Senju-sama, I'll be waiting here." He tried the polite tone at least, so when the two guards stared at each other, before trying to lash out at the *demon*, with harsh words, he was perfectly entitled to show his fiercest snakes emerge from his shoulders, adding, in a slightly angry tone, "Go call her."

The two guards obeyed, as the two snakes retracted into his shoulders, disappearing from view.

If one could create many snakes to dart up from the arms, why not from the shoulders, or the back, or the legs?

"You really need anger control, Naruto," Yoru pointed out, "and maybe a vacation. Father will insist on that, you know."

"Why does everyone think that only three hours of sleep is such a bad habit?" The boy whined, looking at the sky.

"Because *it* is a bad habit. You need to stop self-destructing yourself," Yoru hissed gently, "it will make people sad then."

"Fine, I promise I'll go talk to Kuro first thing after this mission, how long could it take?" After a couple of minutes, a blond woman with twin tails emerged from the mansion, on her back a green coat, and with most prominent features that would have made even Samui blink in surprise.

She moved stomping the ground, leaving cracks where she walked, before stopping straight in front of the boy, as behind her, her assistant, probably, a girl with hazel hair, reached for her running slightly.

"Tsunade-sama!"

"You're Naruto Uzumaki?" as Tsunade queried that, looking at the boy, Jiraiya had to be wrong, he had described a gaki not much tall, of eleven years old, but this guy did fit all the other descriptions, but he was just taller, leaner, she could see the muscles tensing up at the surname being spoken in the same way an animal prepares to pounce at a prey, and then relax after it was done. She could see, with her expert eyes, something moving under his jacket, as slowly, a black snake emerged from it, Jiraiya had told her about the boy's passion for snakes, something he had taken after being brought into the life of Mitarashi Anko, Orochimaru's previous student.

Still, the boy resembled so much Minato and Kushina, that it kind of hurt her knowing how much he actually hated them, and even Konoha. She…she disliked Konoha, it had taken away everything from her, and the only reason she still was there was because Kushina was a relative, and because she had been the godmother for Katsumi. That meant she was supposed to be the godmother for Naruto, too. Nobody had told her that, however. They had only told her that, out of the twins, one had died. Jiraiya had been told, and she hadn't, because, obviously, she'd have punched Minato all the way through the land of fire twice, for the pain he'd subject Kushina to. Instead, now the kid hated the guts out of the two, to the point where his last words, to Kushina, had actually broken her psyche. She didn't know how, or when, she had worsened that much, maybe the death of Katsumi, because for Tsunade too, as it was unlikely for a Genin to survive a waterfall without preparation, Katsumi was dead. Now, Kushina simply stood in her room, chakra suppressant seals active, to avoid her lashing out with her chains, holding tightly onto Katsumi's clothes, refusing to let them go, even to eat. She had to be force fed.

It pained her, it pained her to no end, and she needed a healthy dose of drinks.

"My name is Naruto, Senju-sama, I am the weapon leased to Konoha from Kumo, nothing more," Naruto replied, biting his tongue to avoid saying anything more, "and my duty is to escort you around this city."

"I am Yoru, Naruto's partner, pleasure to meet you," the snake talked. The snake actually raised his head, made a polite bow, and talked. Tsunade stared at the snake narrowing her eyes, since when did snakes talk? Shizune instead let out a small shriek, as she grabbed onto Tonton, her pig pet, a bit harder, making it whine.

"You're a …talking snake?" Tsunade queried.

"That, or my Boss has a knack for ventriloquism," Yoru replied as Naruto groaned, "What? Lighten up the atmosphere! That's my specialty."

"I thought your name was Kuro, are you related?"

"Kuro's my father, he's the head of the Boss' summons," Yoru explained, earning himself a hiss from Naruto.

"Why didn't you learn silence?" Naruto muttered gritting his teeth.

"I shouldn't have said that?" Yoru meekly replied, "Well, come on Boss, it means you just have to talk to pops sooner than later!"

"Summon boss? The snakes summon boss can't be your father, I mean…you can't have snakes summoning as that scroll is…" Tsunade's eyes widened at the realization: did the boy…could he actually have done…

"What I can or can't have isn't the discussion now. I'm escorting you, Senju-sama, so, where do you wish to go?" Naruto snapped in, keeping a bad stare towards Yoru, who made pleading sorry red eyes, until he got his head slightly scratched by the boy. He couldn't keep being angry at the poor reptile. It was mostly his fault for having taken him and not trained him completely…but a slip of the tongue was bound to happen eventually, and his nature was more fiery and easy going then that of Kuro…for what it meant Kuro's nature being more reserved, obviously.

"Well, you know, I'd like to go around town, gambling slots and sake bars...come on, let's get going," as Tsunade began walking, Naruto simply nodded, staying next to the woman, not uttering a word more, as Shizune slowly moved behind the two.

"You speak little for being eleven years old," Tsunade said, after half an hour of walking Konoha's streets, strangely without having to go through the mass of people, who stood apart with little difficulty once they realized just who was walking.

Naruto simply nodded in acknowledgement, without saying another word.

"You could say something, brat," Tsunade's forehead had now a tick mark, appearing at the side of her temple.

"Why should I, Senju-sama? I'm forced here to avoid a war starting: I'm not here because I like the village, or its people. That guy over there," Naruto growled pointing at someone who had strangely pink hues in his hair, "Tried to enter my house last night, to write with pig blood on my walls, I could have killed him, should have killed him, instead, I let him go…after dousing him in pink paint." Yoru hissed a chuckle, as the man question, feeling Naruto's gaze, let out a small scream and dashed back inside his shop.

"So…it's not fashion," Tsunade muttered, realizing just then how many, of the people that were making space for them to walk through, had something pink on their face, hair, or something else, "you actually have that many people hating you?"

"Oh come on…they told you who I am, right?" Naruto muttered back, clearly annoyed.

"Well, but, they should see you as a…" Tsunade was interrupted once more, she hated being interrupted, but this time, Naruto's gaze was cold and staring straight at her, like Orochimaru's, once.

"I am the son of the Kage of Kumo, I am a Kumo ninja who wears the Kumo headband," Pointing at his right arm, "and am forced to wear the Konoha's one," pointing at his wrist, "Kumo and Konoha nins don't go well together, and that's why they hate me. If we add that other thing, then hello, why the hell am I still here? Oh yes, I can't leave…just try and get over it, I am not wanted by Konoha, and I do not want to stay in Konoha. At the present, the Hokage has tried everything *but* forcing me to marry someone," Naruto muttered, angrily.

"Calm down boss…DOWN!" Naruto barely lowered his head, as Tsunade's right fist hit the air, where moments before it was, then he sidestepped to the side, to avoid a sweeping kick that still made a fissure, a damn fissure, in the ground.

"Senju-sama?" Naruto queried, keeping his senses high.

"Then you've broken Kushina's mind with your words on purpose?" Tsunade queried, looking at the boy with her eyes narrowing down, "I thought it was strange, but Minato told me how much you acted like you actually *loved* her during your trip back, just to take all of that away in an instant, in the moment she needed it the most...you destroyed her mind, do you realize that?"

"So what?" Naruto replied, bitterly, "It's too easy to see only one side of the coin, isn't it? Too difficult to see everything, to see the reason, well, maybe I did, maybe I did not," Naruto's weight came down from his body, letting a dust cloud form around himself, hiding him from view, "but then, she *did* kidnap me!" with that, Naruto emerged from the cloud, his right punch directed at Tsunade's face, who smirked, blocking it with her left arm.

"You think you can go up against a Sannin!" as her right hook went through the boy's ribs, he puffed into smoke.

"No, alone I cannot," another one dashed towards her, from up above, in a spin-wheel kick as Tsunade swiftly sidestepped, to avoid the enhanced kick with air chakra.

"Then again, I am the one man army, didn't you know that?" as Tsunade's fist connected once more, it puffed away again.

"Kage Bunshins? You must be at your wits end now…" Tsunade muttered, before recalling Jiraiya's words.

_The brat has got so much chakra that he trained all day on the rasengan without fainting and still ended up having the strength for twenty more Kage Bunshins…twenty!_

"How many can you create?" Tsunade queried, as the people in the street had all but started screaming and leaving in confusion.

"More than two thousands…" another one appeared, but Tsunade narrowed her eyes, it wasn't a boast, so…

"Where's the real one?"

"Forest of Death." The clone replied, shrugging.

"And why are you telling me this?"

"Because Yoru received the call back from Kuro, and Naruto has gone there too. It was starting to get out of hand."

"You seem more collected than the other clones," as Tsunade pointed that out, the Naruto in question nodded.

"I am alpha, the first Kage Bunshin of the month. The more the time passes, the more stress the original one accumulates, while I keep to myself, training in the forest of death, so as not to be disturbed."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow.

"He has kage bunshins to hold out an entire month! That's bordering the insane! The chakra consumption is…"

"Hush," Clone Naruto dismissed the issue, with a hand wave, "we have chakra, far more than we actually would ever need, it nearly doubled after the event in Takigakure, and thus we have no trouble."

"So…I take it you're not the only one," Shizune kept staring surprised, firstly on one side, then the other, Tsunade's usually angry demeanor was now replaced by sheer curiosity, something the legendary medic-nin didn't feel in a long time.

"No, there is Beta, who concentrates on Ninjutsu's theory, there is Gamma, who takes care of Genjutsu part, and then there's Delta and Epsilon."

"Why don't you tell me what those two concentrate on?" Tsunade queried, as a horrible suspicion arised, was the boy really another Orochimaru? Did he go around killing people, sectioning them, using them for his experiments?

"I'm being called back…oh well." With that, Alpha dismissed himself in a cloud of smoke, leaving a perplexed Tsunade and Shizune.

"Shizune!"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama!"

"I'm going on a stroll in a forest. You stay here!" with that, Tsunade began marching defiantly towards the forest of death. Someone was in need of answering questions, but worse of all, she felt the distinct feeling of being toyed with, something that hadn't happened in a long time.

Shizune looked at the weights the boy had dropped, probably to at least try and get a speed to match that of her sensei, and, while trying to lift one, realized she couldn't, actually, even *push* them or *pull* them. They simply were too heavy.

While Tsunade stormed over the forest of Death, a purple-haired Kunoichi was already inside the forest, letting her body rest against a giant tree, staring strangely at the empty, now she knew, river. Slithery-kun wasn't there either. She had looked for Scaly-chan, but hadn't found her, not a trace of where she had gone, nor Slithery-kun, or the others…they had all just, kind of disappeared in the forest. There still were snakes going around, but *her* snakes? They had all been gone. It was like someone had hunted them down, and killed them before making their bodies disappear into thin air, and Slithery-kun *was* big!

It was at that moment, that she felt a twig crack, a bird fly away, and a gurgle of pain coming from high above. She felt droplets of something warm fall on her shoulder, and she tensed. The Anbu that had been following her closely was no more, something, or someone, had killed him, without leaving a trace or making a sound.

She stood very still, for a moment, before running away from the tree's roots, and turning around, to stare at the base of the tree, were the half-eaten body of an Anbu stood, but no signs of the beast that had done that.

That's when she stopped, turning her gaze in front of her, where a giant, brownish, snake stood, staring at her with curiosity in his eyes. It was as tall as her, and clearly didn't have the *bite* to chew half the Anbu's body in half like that, which meant that, whatever thing did that, it was still hidden, still around, and probably this snake's relative.

"Oh come on, I know you like Anko-chan, right?" as she said that, in a flirty tone, trying to ease the Snake, the snake actually nodded.

"Huh?" Now, there was a difference between Slithery-kun nodding and this snake nodding. First, Slithery-kun had learned to nod after years of practicing, years, this snake, on the other hand, didn't seem to have years, secondly, the nod came without her using pheromones, or anything else, to convince the snake she was a friend, and not an enemy.

"Please, come this way, Anko-san," oh, she had lost it! The snake talked! Then, she narrowed her eyes, no, she knew just who could actually teach snakes to talk, and it wasn't someone she wanted to meet…still, as she tried to turn around, there stood the mother of all forest snakes, staring at her with a small grin, if a giant anaconda bigger than a building could make a small grin, and with that, Anko raised her hands, admitting defeating, and started to follow the *little* one.

The forest of death was a circular construction, with gates all around at identical distances, and a tower in the middle, with a river cutting the place in half. So, when she brought near the end of the river, she started to think they wanted her to actually hop over the fence, and keep going, instead, they pointed at a small bundle of rocks, that removed, revealed an even smaller Fuinjutsu seal.

"You want me to activate that?" As she queried that, the snake nodded, before moving under the water.

"Well…oh, Kami be damned, I'll do it!" as she did, on the other side of the river bed, the trunk of a tree slowly slid down.

"Why are things getting complicated?" she cursed, as she dashed onto the water, making her way to the other side, and looking, her eyes narrowing, at the hollow tree trunk, that seemed to have a rope ladder to get down.

"Anko-chan, you're getting into trouble, you know that?" She muttered to herself, as, finally, she reached the end of the descent. The walls, the ground, and all around her, seemed to have been smoothed out, as it seemed to have been dug by hand, actually, before having been passed once more with some sort of Jutsu to keep it compacted.

The long corridor had multiple round doors around, in a manner that resembled some sort of hollowed hive system, just…filled with snakes.

Anko slowly heard a humming sound, kind of like a lullaby, coming from deeper in the complex, and, seeing how none of the snakes seemed to care, at all, about her being there, she slowly started to walk over, biting nervously on her dango stick.

The humming grew stronger, until it became clear that it was a lullaby, some sort of hissed lullaby.

"Sleep well, my child, sleep well, my precious,

Dream of starry skies, and of gentle breezes,

Sleep till the sun, rises over the horizon,

Sleep till the moon, drops over the mountain,

Let the wind tell you, the story of life,

Let the earth crumble, and the fire burn bright,

Let the water flow, silent in the river…"

Anko had barely gotten over a sort of arched place, and there, her dango stick had fallen.

A sort of enormous, humongous, out of the world black cobra snake was singing a lullaby, inside of the cave, which barely could contain him, with his black scales reflecting the light of the torches, and surrounded by slithering masses of snakes, there, there stood Naruto, sleeping like a baby.

Well, that was what Naruto meant when *he'd take care of it*.

"No shit. He's gotten an army," was all that Anko could mutter, before the blue soft gaze of the black snake, Kuro, turned to her, with a small grin that still was more than enough to show his set of sharp fangs.

"Anko-san, it's a pleasure to see you once more." Kuro spoke softly, as he uncoiled and then recoiled until Naruto had just gently been moved, without waking him up, next to the woman.

"Well…I need to be filled in, just when did you get *this* big? You're nearly the size of a mountain," Anko muttered softly, as she moved closer to the brat, who was sleeping so peacefully, and gently touching his hair, he had really grown, but his sleeping face was always the same, so cute, so defenseless.

"The older an animal summon becomes, the stronger he or she gets," Kuro spoke, "when I was first born, I was taken away from the rest of the snakes, because my eyes were different. I was taken in by Naruto, and he and I formed a bond, over the countless hours, and hours, and days, and then weeks and months, of training together. He helped me, and I helped him, and this still goes on."

"How does that relate to you getting that big?" Anko queried.

"You see, he possessed a natural wind affinity, but was more apt in learning lightning jutsus, and normally, snakes don't have affinities…so, he handed it over to me," Kuro spoke softly, "he kept giving me chakra, wind chakra, until I became naturally able to produce it, and then…well, I became Kuro the wind snake, the slithering darkness of the night, the biter of the apocalypse," he chuckled, slightly, "that's when Takigakure came into play, Anko-san, the Hero water's effects usually are meant to go straight towards the chakra coils, passing through the stomach. Instead, when Naruto made the water evaporate…it worked as a sauna, and he, and I, began aging, as even our cells started growing tenfold. While he could lower its effects, thanks to the chakra of the Kyuubi inside of him, I could not…but as we can live for hundreds and hundreds of years…it worked in my favor." Kuro chuckled slightly, as the noise made Naruto whine in his sleep for a moment, before going back to peacefully sleep, latching onto Anko's hand tightly.

"I see…still, what is he thinking of doing? I mean, it's not like he can take on the fourth or Konoha, no offense, but you're all just snakes…"

"No offense taken, but no, we are here for another reason, Anko-san, we are his summons," pointing at the boy, "and we are his family too. He'll have to stay in Konoha for five years, the least we can do is stay here too, and he needs someone to convince him to go to sleep, he barely sleeps when I'm not around, and even Yoru sometimes has to force his *tail* to make him go to sleep."

"Why? He looks so peaceful right now." As Anko gently scratched Naruto's hair, the boy actually purred before, through a recoiling of Kuro's spire, Anko found herself having the boy's head on her lap.

"That's because he's here. That, and because the lanterns around here generate a natural incense with calming proprieties, usually Yoru can confirm his sleeping is all but peaceful."

"Hey, Kuro-kun, can you tell me something?" Anko queried, as the snake, silently nodding, waited for the woman's question, "is he the assassin that goes around at night, killing people?"

"If I answered that, would you do something about it?" Kuro replied, softly.

"At first if I had known, no, as he had barely sent into shock whores and whoresons…but you know that as of recent…he's been targeting good Jounins and some of the most loyal Konoha's men? Even a couple of civilians too have been hit," with those words, the atmosphere tensed.

"Are you sure about that, Anko-san?" Kuro queried, neutrally.

"Yes…so it's him, right?" Anko slowly let a tear roll down her cheek as the boy she was holding on her lap was a murderer, a cold-blooded one too, but it was still the only one who understood all her pain, who called her Oneechan, and she didn't know what to do...

"No," Kuro replied, "I will not refute him having, in the past, entered rooms of Jounin and Anbus to teach them a lesson, but he has never killed anyone intentionally, at least, and if someone is trying to frame him…then I know who it is, and it just proves how some of Konoha's shinobis are worse than our kind."

Anko started to sob in relief, holding tightly onto the head of Naruto, she should have at least placed some doubt in Kuro's words, but she had heard what she had wanted to hear, there was nothing else that mattered, to her.

"Oneechan," Naruto queried, having woken up for the sobs of Anko, and her tears falling on his face, "why are you crying?" as he stared at her with his blue eyes, which held deep down hideous scars, the purple-haired woman couldn't help but give him a light kiss on the forehead, muttering back.

"Everything is fine, Otouto, get some sleep now. I'll be here when you wake up."

"Promise?" Naruto whispered back, with his eyes slightly sparkling, like they used to, even though his body was one of a fourteen or fifteen years old, he was still a child, at heart.

"Promise," Anko nodded back, as Naruto slowly closed his eyes, dozing off to sleep a couple of minutes later.

In the end, the incense around the room made also Anko feel sleepy, and with that, the two fell at sleep. Kuro slowly moved them on his coils, to have them placed into an area a bit behind him, where some pillows and mats were. Gently having them dropped there, he turned around, hissing lightly at some of his sons, who hissed back.

They had to test how actually *hidden* the place was, after all.

Tsunade, truth be told, had been toyed with. She had kind of hoped to find something, anything at all that would make it clear just where the brat had gone. Instead, not only had the forest of death gone awfully quiet over the course of the years she hadn't been in there, but she hadn't found the brat no matter where she went and where she searched! She was starting to growl angrily, as she smashed a couple of trees down, flinging them around.

"Just where are you hiding, brat!"

"Damn, he got you too?" Tsunade turned around just in time to see Jiraiya standing there, in his sage mode.

"Jiraiya? What are you doing in your sage mode?"

"I'm trying to sense out the imbalance in the forest, because, Kami be damned, the brat made a deal with me to help him strengthen out his *hide-out* security…And I can't find him anymore, so, I say I'm giving up on it," the toad sage shrugged off his natural chakra, before grabbing a bloc notes, as inspiration had suddenly hit him.

"Why didn't you warn me he's outright hateful of Kushina?" Tsunade queried, a tick mark appearing over her forehead.

"If he's become that while I wasn't here, I don't know. I just know that every time I come here, months later, the boy gets a darker shade of Orochimaru, we need to stop this, before he actually becomes like our former teammate." Jiraiya's face had darkened, as Tsunade too had nodded at the Toad Sage's words.

"He just doesn't even seem a Genin anymore, he actually seems more like a fourteen years old now, and…well, he's cunning. If he can conjure two thousands of Kage Bunshins…and he wasn't boasting, then, even now, he's getting stronger. Coupled with him not sleeping, Jiraiya, I'm afraid Minato *has* something to worry about in the long term, he's turning into a time bomb, the more he stays in Konoha, the worst it gets," Tsunade used her right hand to grab at the necklace that was around her neck, "the will of fire should have nothing to do with kidnapping children…he considers himself a weapon, Jiraiya."

"That's worse than I thought then…he's returning into his Root mentality," as Jiraiya, slowly, but surely, explained the entire situation to Tsunade, the crack under the slug princess' right foot grew, as she had been hitting it for a while.

"Fucking Danzo bastard," Tsunade spat to the side, on the ground, "Well, let's go drink some sake, I couldn't find him at all, and he probably lied about being here from the beginning."

"Yeah, thought so too." Unknown to the duo, just under the crack, one could have seen a slight shimmer of light, that soon closed up however, as a snake decided that a crack wasn't meant to exist in that point of the galleries.

*Sakura* *Warning-Yandere!*

It was night: she had been waiting inside of Naruto's house for a while now, and in the end, she had fallen asleep on his couch. She obviously wouldn't have wanted to, but she was just tired from all the recent events, and she wanted to speak with Naruto, to ask him if he could do something for her burnt mark.

The first thing that had woken her up had been a slight knocking on the door. Somebody had knocked, and then the door had opened slowly, with a light creaking sound. She had barely opened her eye, but, not seeing anyone, had closed it again. Behind her, and behind the couch, Kushina's hazed figure lingered next to Naruto's bed the red-haired woman's hair grown a couple of inches, her face pale from slight lack of food, as she had been forced to feed, and chains made of chakra slowly appearing behind her back. She was in a white nightgown that slowly moved because of the wind breeze from the open window.

The red haired woman decided to go into the bathroom: after all, her Naruto wasn't in bed, so he had to be in the bathroom. As she slowly walked over there, chains rattling, Sakura opened her eyes. She slowly got up, thirsty for a glass of water and as she moved into the kitchen, for a glass of water, that was when Kushina heard the noise coming from the same room. Oh, it was simple, her Naruto had gone to take some water to drink, he had to be thirsty, the poor boy. She slowly took her steps into the kitchen, and stopped, her face contorting into a mad and hateful one at seeing a girls' back. She had short pink hair, and stood drinking a glass of water from the tap. She was in Naruto's kitchen, drinking from his glass. That was her son's glass. The pink hair, where had she seen it before? Oh yes, she knew where, she knew it, the whore was the pink one, she had taken her Naruto away, she had known, when she had snapped the neck of the kunoichi assigned to guard her for the day, and had removed her own chakra seal, she had known that Naruto, her Naruto-kun, would have never, ever, talked to her like that on that day.

_Your children are dead! You need to live with it!_

It had to be *her* fault. The chains rattled again, and Sakura, this time, turned around. She turned around and she screamed, as the face that Kushina was showing wasn't something the Kunoichi could bring to understand in the realm of mortals, it was like that of a monster born from nightmares, as the chains launched themselves forward, she barely got down on her knees, avoiding them from hitting straight through the concrete walls, the kitchen sink, and sending water everywhere, as they retracted, ready for another hit.

Sakura tried to run, but slipped on the water, falling down on her knees and feeling sore on her right arm, which had taken most of the impact.

Kushina's chains hit the table of the kitchen that was in the way, everything was always in the way of saving her son from harm. Why couldn't anyone, anyone at all understand her? Tsunade had at least told her she would do something about Naruto! The old hag wanted Naruto for herself, she knew it! She hadn't come back all day and nearly all night, she knew she had taken Naruto as her new grandson and had helped him escape! She was too much friends with Jiraiya_, that faking whore! Why can't she understand I'm doing this for MY SON! WHY WHY!_

As the table splintered, Kushina took a step forward, she had to do something about the pink haired girl, but as the kunoichi trembled, Kushina thought of something. The whore had taken her son's first kiss away sure, she had claimed it back one night, when everyone else was sleeping. She had done the same with Yakumo, and the two hadn't even realized it. Now, however, the whore had slept in Naruto's house, maybe she had been in his bed, even, and had gone to the kitchen without Kushina realizing it, there was no other way around, she had to make sure.

More chains dashed forward encircling all of Sakura's arts and even her neck, as she had that pleading and crying tone that Kushina didn't like on the whores, so, she flung her against the wall once, making her groan in pain, before bringing her closer.

"Sa-ku-ra-chan," Kushina said with a playful tone, "have you slept with my son?" her eyes stared at the pink haired girl who wasn't answering back. Why wasn't she answering back? Sure she had a chain around her neck that was preventing her from speaking, sure, she seemed to have fainted from the hit on the head, but still…she was guilty! That was the reason she wasn't speaking.

"Sa-ku-ra-chan…you shouldn't sleep with other people's sons," with that Kushina moved towards Naruto's bed, throwing the kunoichi on it, "You slept in this bed, right?" a chain slashed at the pink girls stomach, making her open her eyes for the pain, "you opened your legs in this bed," as chains wrapped around the girl's thighs, they actually moved them apart, making the girl gurgle in pain.

"I'll have to make sure you'll never do this again…" as Kushina muttered that gleefully, readying a chain to skewer straight through the pink-haired girl, at that moment, when Sakura was just about to pray to Kami for a quick death, that was the moment someone went *puff*. Kushina turned around, the noise had distracted her, but there was nothing strange…except the couch was now missing.

She turned back to the pink-haired girl, gently touching the girl's pink hair, before yanking some of it away, making Sakura cry out in pain, albeit it came as a muffled scream, the chains in her neck starting to make her bleed.

"Sa-ku-ra-chan," Kushina said once more, "you've got a pretty skin," as the red-haired woman let a finger trace gently onto Sakura's body, she giggled, slightly, "I had it too…before I gave birth to two wonderful babies," her hand was getting towards Sakura's waist, and didn't seem inclined to stop, "but you know what happened? One died…and I was so sad…but then, he wasn't dead no longer…but he didn't know me…then he died again…but then, I found him once more…and he still doesn't know ME!" she punched straight at Sakura's low stomach area, making the girl nearly barf by the pain, "and you know what's funny? I try, I tried, I thought I had managed it, but then I lost my other girl, my little girl…and then he HATED me for that!" Sakura could feel the chains straighten her up, bringing her face closer to that of Kushina, who moved her own closer to the girl.

"You made him hate me, didn't you?" the woman touched Sakura's right cheek, "that's why I'm going to take you out…in that way, you will never, ever, take him away from me…Dattebayo!" with a final, wicked, grin, Kushina's chain dashed forward, only to stop, inches before doing anything, as Sakura's eyes, closed to prepare herself for her painful execution, slowly opened back.

Kushina had a Ninjato straight through her head, while her all body had been pierced with senbon needles, and as the woman closed her eyes, her chains dispersing, Sakura fell on the bed, staring in surprise, and shock, as she had already peed herself from the utter fear she had felt.

"Are you fine?" the voice came gently, the voice of the masked man that had spoken to her, and made her feel relaxed, came to her ears, and she…she couldn't help but run over to him and start crying out in his chest.

He slowly ruffled her hair, holding her gently, not tightly, and waiting for her to calm down, in silence.

"Na…Naruto…I…I was so scared!" Sakura kept the tears going down her face, as Naruto, staring at her with saddened eyes, whispered back.

"Don't be…I'm here now, I'll take care of everything." Sakura nodded, slightly blushing when the thoughts of how she was, and where she was, and what she had done, slowly returned into her mind as adrenaline dispersed.

"I…I…" she muttered.

"You need," Naruto grabbed her chin with his right hand, "to take a shower, then, I'll lend you some clothes and I'll walk you home, if you want to, or I'll bring you someplace safe to get this all out of your system, okay?" Sakura nodded, blushing, as she slowly, and hesitantly, moved towards his bathroom, turning just slightly around to make sure it wasn't a dream, or that she wasn't dead.

It took a good half an hour in the shower to clean herself, and by the time she was done, she realized clothes had been piled in a neatly manner on top of a chair, they were all dark green and light green, but she wasn't going to complain about fashion to her life savior.

She took a deep breath, as she had rationalized it all, Naruto had probably come back home and seen that scene, and had saved her. So far so good, but then why was Kushina in Naruto's house, ranting about her son and Sakura taking him away? It couldn't be that Naruto was Kushina's son, it simply…as she walked into the living room, she nearly let out another screech, as there was a Kushina there, still alive, nodding to Naruto.

"N-Naruto!" she screeched, but Naruto, with a calming smile, beckoned her closer.

"It's just a henge, Sakura-chan…" with that the pink-haired girl still didn't move from her afraid and in a corner fetal position.

"I'll go and get out of here, should trick the Anbu patrol, I'll use some chains to make it look the same," as the Kushina-Naruto Clone muttered, leaving after a while, in the same slow walk the woman had, Naruto, the real one, moved closer to the crying in a corner Sakura, and felt himself being hugged forcefully by the girl.

"Na…Naruto…please hold me." The boy sighed, saying nothing, as he hugged the incredibly looking minute pink-haired girl, until she finally fell asleep.

**You just killed your…**

_She was not my mother. Yugito-oneechan was more of a mom than that red-haired woman will ever be._

**I was going to say *former sensei* sheesh. **

_Like if I could believe you…_

**Well, you did get a good dose of sleep didn't you? Slept like a rock through the afternoon and into the night.**

_Yeah, Alpha is back doing is job, and Delta and Epsilon are doing their own, increasing security._

**Paranoia is the first sign of…**

_If I had been paranoid to begin with, then Shiro wouldn't have been dead, I wouldn't have been caught by trusting a red-haired woman, and all this wouldn't have happened._

**Still, you had the *couch* eat her.**

_Nobody questions the Couch._

…**you know, I think that was a crack joke.**

Naruto thought about it for a minute, before chuckling, slightly, as he stared into Sakura's sleeping face, was that the same face he made when he fell asleep, that same look so defenseless and without problems at the same time? Or was it only because right now, Sakura felt safe? Would she sleep like that even at home? Still, she had gotten lucky, extremely lucky. Had the couch not appeared straight on top of Naruto, and hadn't Kuro been there to translate, it would have turned sore fast. Sakura dead wouldn't have made Naruto lose much sleep, that much was true. Having to explain a dead Kunoichi in his bed, and probably seeing Kushina get free again would have been worse. In this way, at least…one of his troubles was clear. The clone would slowly move towards the edge of town, near the gates, and disperse in a back alley once out of Anbu's range…and that he did a few minutes afterwards.

Naruto closed his eyes, well, he had had enough surprises for a night; so he might as well try and take some more sleep in.

*Next Day*

Sakura woke up to a faint breathing sound. A couple of seconds later, the breathing sound stopped being that regular, and as she felt herself being lifted, and then deposited somewhere, she slowly opened her eyes to see Naruto's grin as he headed towards the kitchen. She stood up, her face red in embarrassment, as the living room seemed like she had found it the first time. The bed had clean sheets, there was no blood, and nothing seemed out of place, until she got up and followed Naruto in the kitchen, where the kitchen sink was destroyed and the wooden table smashed to the side. Furthermore, Sakura knew she had never had dark green clothes in her wardrobe, or black pants. As she slowly but surely, tried to reason on where Naruto was going to put the plates for breakfast, she realized that some sort of snakes had slithered their way in. Normally, she would have screamed, but, right now, she had seen far more than enough to be scared of some snakes, which even seemed tame.

"Table formation boys, get to it, please." As Naruto said that with a small smile, the snakes nodded, starting to grab the scattered wood pieces and incorporating them on their skin, until, in the end, it turned into a table. A table made of snakes and wood.

"Chairs are fine, thank Kami." Naruto muttered, as he lay the breakfast on the table, scrambled eggs and ham.

"Na…Naruto-kun," Sakura muttered, meekly, as the boy had filled her platter generously, before doing the same for his own, "what…what are you going to do now?" He had killed the Hokage's wife, to defend her, yes, but still…

"I'm going to do nothing." Naruto replied, with a shrug.

"But…the Hokage's wife…"

"The Hokage's wife has been seen walking towards Konoha's gates in a nightgown, her chains rattling. She'll probably become a ghost story sometime soon." Naruto shrugged, as Sakura, hesitantly, began eating some bits of eggs, on the side.

"Want bread?" Naruto queried, as he shot from his arm a snake that grabbed the bread in the upper shelf, bringing it on the table.

"I should be on a diet…anything to drink?" Sakura queried, as she broke up a piece of it, to make a sort of makeshift sandwich.

"Orange juice or milk?" It was strange, as their breakfast degenerated into simple small chatter, how much Sakura felt at ease. It wasn't like being with her family, where her father snorted accusations about her being unfit for being a shinobi, and it wasn't like her mother, who wanted her to just stop playing ninja and get her to become a housewife.

"By the way," Naruto queried, once they had both finished breakfast, "what was the reason you were in my house?"

"I…I wanted to know if…if there was anything you could do for my scar…" as Sakura muttered that, pointing at her side, with a sad look, Naruto shook his head.

"You see, it's not because I healed Yakumo, that she doesn't have a scar, Yakumo has a special ability, to make Genjutsus reality. So she simply made her real skin real, she could, willingly, transform into anything by simply using a Henge. It's a real neat skill, limited only by her imagination…but has a horrible downside to it."

"Which is?" Sakura queried, curious.

"It makes the user develop a split personality, really evil too, bent on destruction and carnage. The only reason Yakumo is still sane is because she had it sealed away." Naruto explained that slowly, as Sakura nodded, before starting to fidget with a chunk of her own hair.

"Listen…Naruto…"

"Yes?"

"Thank you for saving me," she whispered, "I'm a failure as a Kunoichi, and what you did could have repercussions with Kumo, but you saved me never the less, so…thank you," with that, she stood up, giving Naruto a small kiss to the side of the cheek, before dashing out of his house, leaving the blond boy to sigh and shake his head.

"Boss, you're a heart stealer, I tell you." Yoru muttered, coming out from his jacket.

"Kami be damned…well, are you sure Kuro insisted on that?"

"Yeah, pops says that if he sees more than five clones at a time, for the next weeks, he's going to personally come over here and throw you against the Hokage's mountain until you get the lesson. You need sleep, and you need to cool down. You're burning up your life fuse if you insist on these rhythms." As Yoru spoke politely, Naruto rolled his eyes over, and then moved to get to the door, only to find a chuckling Jiraiya and an outright furious Tsunade, with Shizune behind her.

"Hey Boy! Did you use *protection*?" as Jiraiya winked that, Tsunade punched him, sending him to fly against the wall to the side of the room, before marching straight in front of the boy.

"You dropped your charge in the middle of the afternoon, you know brat? And you weren't in the forest of death, because I'll be damned if…"

"Hey now, the boss was there!" Yoru replied, "He even slept like a baby for more than…" Naruto grabbed Yoru by the neck, narrowing his gaze on the snake.

"I do not sleep like a baby!" as he let Yoru go, who chuckled, he then added, to Tsunade, politely, "Senju-sama, I was in the forest of death, and I am sorry about my disappearance, but you *did* try and hit me."

"I just wanted to knuckle some good sense in you…but I did act rashly, without asking for the full version of the story…he didn't do a good job explaining it all either," as Tsunade pointed at Jiraiya, who had just gotten out of the crack in the wall, the toad sage laughed.

"Ehi! It wasn't my fault! When I told you about having a great grandson I could just get a couple more words in and you were already dashing back to Konoha!"

"I just want to know... Did Kushina pass by?" Tsunade queried, clearly worried, at which point, Naruto nodded.

"Well…luckily I wasn't home," He added, slowly, "she did a mess with the kitchen, and I don't know why, Couch-san warned me in time and so I didn't come back until she was gone."

"Couch-san?" as the Couch slowly unraveled to reveal a giant anaconda, Tsunade and Shizune stared at the scene with their mouth agape.

"Yup, he's one of my summonses: so…I actually managed to be warned by him since he disappeared back to where I hold the scroll for my summons, then Alpha and Beta," two giant boa constrictors emerged from the ceiling, "reverse summoned me here once she was gone."

"Fine brat, now I want to see the scroll with my own eyes, you can't seriously tell me it all went off without a hitch, I mean, snakes summoning? Fine, but creating your own scroll of summons means that you had to at least have a talk with their sage…and he should have killed you!" Jiraiya basically screeched.

"Yeah, I'm curious too about that." Tsunade muttered, as Naruto, instead, shrugged.

"Only if I see yours too," as he spoke, politely, Tsunade raised an eyebrow.

"And why would you want that?"

"Because, all it would take would be someone to destroy my scroll, and it would turn out a mess with my summons. So, since *mine* is in a safe place, I will not risk it alone, seems pretty logical to me."

"Fine, we'll do that later then, now there's something else I want to know: How the hell did you age so fast in a couple of months!" Jiraiya exclaimed.

"Actually…Hero Water Sauna, coupled with someone's chakra, added plus being that his father saved me in the nick of time." Naruto muttered pointing at Yoru, "I'll probably keep the aging sprint till I reach twenty-five thirty years, probably, but then, I should return to aging normally…well, it won't be bad I suppose," Naruto shrugged, "I don't actually *need* to be young, I wasn't young a long time ago, and I won't be anymore, so where's the problem with it?"

"You're really not caring at all about this? It's your childhood we're talking about!" Tsunade muttered, pale, she had thought she could at least do the same things that Katsumi-chan usually liked, she had hoped to see a spark of happiness in the boy's eyes, but instead, he was an adult, done and thorough, and nothing, not even if Tsunade turned out that very instant in the best of grandmothers, would make it change.

"I had five years of childhood, in Kumo, more than enough for me." Naruto whispered back, before chuckling.

"Now, however, I'd like to know why else I've got two legendary Sannin in my living room, as I should go training until the…"

"Oh no, you don't!" Yoru yelled, slapping him on the cheek and jumping on the boy's head.

"Listen here! He's to remain at rest for at least a week. Do what you need to, but keep him rested, and…"

"Oh be quiet! Your father was a hell of a lot more quiet!" As Naruto tried to grab the snake, the snake jumped straight out from the boy's hair, on the Couch, and then on the ceiling.

"Yoru, don't make me come up there!" Naruto whined.

"Not until you promise me you'll take it easy for a week."

"There are the chuunin exams around the corner! I need training!" the blond haired boy whined, as Jiraiya actually chuckled at such a display of *childhood*.

Tsunade stared perplexed at the rapid change of emotions in the boy…it was more like he put up different barriers, depending on who he was speaking to. She was *Senju-sama*, Jiraiya was *Jiraiya-san*, but with the snake, it was a kid and his talking pet-friend.

"Promise!"

Naruto sighed, before sitting his legs crossed, sulking for a moment.

"Fine, I promise!"

Yoru stared at the boy for a moment, and then, nodding, jumped down onto his lap.

"Good!" before disappearing into the boy's jacket.

Naruto sighed.

"So… Now what am I going to do?" as Jiraiya actually gave him a sympathetic look, Tsunade coughed, slightly nervous.

"Well…you could make it up by going around town, properly, with me. You can call me Obaa-san…and I'll call you Naruto-kun." She was actually slightly blushing at that, as Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"But you're too pretty to be an Obaa…Oba-chan would be better," as he nodded that, Tsunade was bought in the same way Jiraiya was, she kind of wondered where the angry and hateful brat of the day before had gone.

"Yeah…just let the boy sleep an entire night, and you'll get this results, I told him three hours of sleep weren't enough, heck, everyone told him that three hours of sleep weren't enough," Yoru said, answering the general question that Tsunade had.

"You baka! You should sleep at least eight hours, for your heart!" As she pouted that, she turned around.

"Well, we're going out, there's not even a gamble place open of the old one I knew of."

"I can bring you to where I usually go, Oba-chan." Naruto said, as he began walking easily, Yoru on his head.

"Since when do you gamble!" Jiraiya muttered following out of sheer curiosity the brat as Tsunade too wanted to ask the same question.

"Kuro loves ramen, but thankfully he only needs to eat once in a very long while…so I managed to put the cash apart through gambling. Some time I wonder if my life sucks just so my luck could rise." As Naruto pointed that out, entering a casino after having henged himself as a busty brunette, something that made Jiraiya approve, for some reason, he sat down, and rolled the slot machine, the first one in a row.

Obviously, it hit jackpot.

Five hours later, Tsunade had lost over twenty millions ryos, but Naruto had won over twenty millions and a half, handing back to Tsunade her losses, he simply placed the half-million of Ryos on his bank account.

"This month's food bills are accounted for then," Naruto chuckled, as he returned being his usual blond self.

"You spend half a million ryos a month? In food?" Tsunade queried, surprised.

"Yeah, my family eats a lot, isn't that right?" as Yoru nodded, grinning, Naruto was suddenly upright lifted by a strong arm, a really strong, and tanned arm.

It took Naruto a moment to turn around, and then, as tears began flowing down, he hugged the living hell out of the man's neck, screaming in joy.

"OTOU-SAN!"

**Author's notes**

**CLIFFHANGER NO JUTSU: MAXIMUM EDITION OF *Reviewers are going to hate you to the death***

***cough* sorry, had to do it.**

**Over 14K and half words later, another chapter.**

**Right now it's just one week away from the Chuunin exams, but don't worry, next chapter will be a blast!**

…**no, no Deidara involved, sorry guys.**

**Q&A time**

**Yesshe: well, it's long and blond and in a ponytail…it's like Yugito's (he took her style of hair)**

**Lanslet: You read all the story insulting Minato till this point? XD I'm imaging the scene: "CURSE YOU MINATO!" "What?" "nothing…" "CURSE YOU MINATO!" "What is it?" "Nothing!" and Sasuke being bashed…well, he is a sulky dark emo type. Sure, he could become someone better, but since none of my characters will ever do anything to him (none are the type to help him out) he'll get worst and worst…by his own accord. Flames of youth, YOSH! I'm sure you're going to love this update, this much long. **

**Reddiamond: Hope I kept the good stuff up!**

**Narutoluver: I'm not even sure about pairings, as I said before, until he gets to the shippuuden part, there exist no writing in my part that in any way may devolve into fixing a pair. Even Sakura's piece here, purely casual. I just try and reason like my characters, and see what they would do, stopping them from going *too far* (Like actually skewering Sakura. It was on the list, then I recalled that Naruto would probably have the couch as a sentinel with a summon-reverse summon mechanism. So he'd probably save the pink haired girl to use her for his purpose. Or something like that. **

**Tzeentch: You cannot have the biter of the apocalypse retire! You will never have him lie down and go to sleep! He's the boss summons, so expect a lot of him in the future chapters! (I'm sure you're now even more scared, aren't you?) **

**Dbzsotrum: harem, nope, for Kakashi…well, he's got his own business.**

**Tamult: I actually gave him the Couatl wings, if you're familiar with D&D (basically, quetzcoatl, the Aztec god, he's the inspiration) and no, she hasn't…when Yakumo will meet guy and lee…"YOSH LET THE BLAZING INFERNO OF YOUTH M…"**

**Fuyutaro son: There, another cliffy, down with the smacking! **

**My name my game: Why go that low? We need more low to be a really angry blow!**

**Dragonskyt: Wig Comment? Man, you are undervaluing the episode's true sadness…glad I made it clearer here! And yeah, I write them on the spot, only taking care to recall what happened, what has to happen, and if my characters hate me, if my muse hates me, or if someone, somewhere, wants to see me being bashed by my reviewers for placing cliffhangers. **

**General answers:**

**I'm sure you're noticing how I'm Bashing, literally, the Anbu side of Konoha.**

**It's the truth. I mean, I know it seems bashing, but except a few named anbu, the damn guys couldn't even catch a frigging kid dressed in orange. Root guys are the true *anbu* force of Konoha, the *anbu* guys of Konoha are something like a mixture of parade officials who are weak. And…yeah, Kuro lied to Anko. And she bought it together with the shoes…**

**Oh, by the way, Kuro's lullaby is something I invented on the spot, I just thought about a couple of words easily pronounceable in a low tone, at night, in a sort of whisper-like behavior. **


	15. Changing

Fifteenth chapter

Tsunade was starting to think that maybe, maybe she was hallucinating. Jiraiya was having the same thought, while Shizune, simply, stared at the scene with a bit of surprise, not knowing who the blond tanned man was, that was laughing out hard as he was hugging the dark green boy that Tsunade's apprentice knew was called Naruto. They had barely gone through a couple of streets, trying to get something to eat after five hours of straight out gambling, when someone had, at a speed to which both the Sannins had found themselves unable to react, grabbed the boy under its arm. Only when they had taken a few seconds, had they taken in the situation at hand. The Raikage was there, in Konoha, a week earlier than the start of the Chuunin exams. He was there, next to him stood another tanned man with shade, Killer B, the Hachibi Jinchuuriki, but, most importantly, the normally serious and frowning Raikage of Kumo, known for its attitude and dislike for many thing, was laughing. The Raikage was laughing, A was laughing. He was laughing just as Naruto was neck-hugging him, like any boy would do. That, that made the two Sannin stop for a moment, their mouth agape. Shizune simply smiled at such a heartwarming scene.

"See, I told you it was my son! Naruto you've grown in these months!" A was smiling, as the neck hug so much familiar of Naruto had become something actually strong, he could feel it, his boy had become stronger, so much, in fact, that maybe he'd ask what method of training they used on the boys of Konoha. He looked no longer like the boy he had first sent on a mission, and that he had no longer seen for the next two years. He seemed a tough little fellow, and he could feel under his jacket something harder, his weights, probably, but still, while his eyes sparkled with joy, there was something else, deep within them, that made the Raikage frown. Something he was going to query later to the bastard of Konoha, obviously.

A man with shades and Ninjatos on the back looked at Naruto in silence, raising his right fist, when Naruto bro-fisted him back, the smile that appeared on that other man's face was something worthy of taking a picture…the rhymes that followed were worthy of being forgotten and drowned in sake.

"Yoh Bro! It's good to have you back!

Now I'm sure we've got stuff to crack,

So let's get the rhymes going,

Cause it's been years

Since my tongue has been sealed,

Waiting for bro's fist punching,

So…"

"Iron Claw!" A iron clawed B in an instant, "You damn better stop the rhymes! I want to hear my son's voice, not your rhymes!" as the cloud of dust in the road settled in, the passerby decided it would be in their best interest to move out of the road, slowly emptying it.

"The Iron Claw really is something of legends," the voice that spoke politely came out from Naruto's jacket, as Yoru stared into the eyes of the Raikage, who let his son on the ground, before carefully valuing wherever to fry the snake or let it explain itself. There was a damn black snake on his son's head for Kami's sake, and it was a talking one!

"Oh, Otou-san! This is Yoru, son of Koru, he's…go with the presentation!" As Naruto whispered that to the black snake, Tsunade and Jiraiya were shocked, and baffled, the boy was actually acting *like* a boy, he wasn't being polite, sour, or a sort of Orochimaru-like clone. He was acting like a damn eleven years old all laughter and smiles and being complicit with his bet. That much change, in so little time, had Tsunade rub her eyes, while Jiraiya *was* trying to "Kai" his way out of this clearly powerful Genjutsu.

"I am Yoru!" The snake said standing to *attention* by using its tail as a hand while on the head of Naruto, "I am the trail blazer of the plains, the burner of Armageddon, Yoru, the fire snake! A pleasure to meet you," with that, the snake brought his tail forward, and A, actually a bit surprised too, shook it.

"I am A, Raikage of Kumo, the father of Naruto, I hope he hasn't given you too many headaches," as A said that, gently returning the hand-tail-shake, Yoru grinned.

"Not at all, he does refuse to sleep some time…but we take care of that, pops and I," as Yoru chuckled, Naruto groaned.

"Why do you all have something against sleeping three hours!" as Naruto groaned that, Yoru slowly slid back into his jacket, letting only his head out.

"Because it's wrong, and unhealthy," Yoru pointed that out, "And you have a week of rest before the exams, so use it."

"Well…I'm sure you'll be excited to know that your Oneechan, and C, are just coming around, while Darui…I think he went to tell the Hokage we arrived a bit early," as A pointed that out, in a thoughtful manner, he ruffled the boy's long hair, who, smiled back at him.

"Yoh! I'm breaking da man's spine

if you haven't been fine!

Nobody treats my bro like shit,

And survives to my next hit!" as B rhymed again, A rolled his eyes over once, before yelling once more.

"IRON CLAW!" smashing B on the ground again.

"Damn, now I'll have to hear him rhyme for the rest of our permanency here," the Raikage muttered, shaking his head, "I had gotten so used to not hearing him, for two years…"

"You're staying? Where are you staying?" Naruto's eyes lit up in sparkles, as A, for once, chuckled, while ruffling the boy's head again.

"Probably at some mansion for foreign chiefs in visit, anyway, I know who Jiraiya-san is, but who is the lovely lady and her younger sister?" As A actually gave the *lovely lady* to Shizune, and the *younger sister* to Tsunade, Jiraiya was just about to say something, when an enhanced chakra feet stomp sent him to yelp in pain and fall on the ground, on the side of the road.

"My…it's a pleasure to meet you, Raikage-sama," Tsunade said in a flirty tone, "my name is Tsunade Senju, you may call me Tsunade-chan," as she said that, actually having *ryo currency symbols* in her eyes, thinking about how much she could actually cash the Raikage out in gambling, Shizune rolled her eyes over and smiled.

"I'm Shizune, and this is Tonton" referring to the pet pig, "and we're Tsunade-sama apprentice, she's one of the legendary Sannin who fought in the second shinobi war," as Shizune pointed that out, Tsunade's forehead had a tick mark appear, as she smiled murderously so to Shizune.

"Well, anyway! How about we all go get something to eat?" As Jiraiya defused the situation, with Naruto going onto his *otou-san*'s back, someone, somewhere, woke up.

*Kushina*

Chakra works in mysterious ways. More than chakra, however, does something else: nobody turns mad in the blink of a moment. Nobody turns evil from day to night, a fortnight doesn't make the good wash away, or the evil sprout from angel's wings. Mostly, however, the Uzumaki vitality isn't something trifle, like an increase in appetite, a *never getting sick* sign, no, it's a *I'll be dead only when you'll be sure my heart has stopped beating*. Mostly, however, it was something _else_ result. Something that, unknown, had still managed to mend the damage of a fractured skull, of compound fractures, of grave cerebral damage. It had worked slowly, so slowly that not even Naruto had realized it, when he had removed the Ninjato from Kushina's head, or the senbon needles. Something that had managed, against all odds and medical capacities, something that had gone against everything medical science dictated, to make a certain red-haired woman open her eyes hours after her *_death_*, inside a certain snake's digestive system. Said woman, Kushina Uzumaki, whose eyes were now burning fiery pits of pure and undiluted madness, emerged from the snake's gut in such a gruesome and unexpected way, that the snake didn't get that split second needed to summon away, to disperse, to go away. The Couch died from a quick chain through the head, while from its belly, covered in thick grime and remains of dead rats a maddening face filled with a crooked smile emerged. Slowly, but surely, making her way to the door.

"Na-ru-to-kun…mommy's coming for you," Kushina muttered, as she wobbled through towards the door. She just felt so right and so fine, in that moment. She felt something scouring her veins, something thick and warm but she didn't realize just how foul it was, it didn't matter to her, as long as it got her near her son. A diamond-shaped tattoo on the back of her shoulder shone brightly for a second, before dispersing in a sort of black pattern all along her back, healing the wounds, together with _something_ else, something that hadn't bothered activating as her heart still was beating in her chest, albeit that weakly, but that had moved, and had done something, when she had reached just her final breath, inside the belly of the beast, hours after the Yin release had done its own course.

A flicker of dark chakra slowly ebbed away from one of the wounds on the woman's shoulder, as Alpha and Beta, the two boa constrictors which usually guarded the doorway, felt the evil and summoned away in a puff of smoke. They had to warn Kuro. They had to warn their boss. Mostly, however, they felt fear. They didn't know what it was, but they felt afraid.

*Konoha*

Somewhere, in Konoha, C winced. Narrowing his eyes for a brief second, he shook his head. No, it had been just a brief flicker of a moment. He doubted furthermore that B had gone on a murderous rampage, or that Yugito had done so too, they had learned to control their rage in the waterfall of truth after all. It was impossible for any of them to generate that thick of a Yin chakra, but mostly, to generate something that foul, it would require as a minimum a tailed beast's energy.

"Listen up team!" He turned around, to his *brats*, "you all have your rooms in the inn, you've been assigned a training ground to train, and those who don't pass the chuunin's exams preliminary get to stay here to watch the other's fights. If you all lose, we all leave. Got it?"

Shiganori Yugoro raised his hands in the sky, his green eyes staring up towards the cloud as his raven hair flew free thanks to a slight breeze he smiled as he muttered.

"Fate shall guide us on a victorious path that I know, for…" his attire consisted of a long sort of white robe, with a kunai belt and a pair of small metal knuckles on his fist. He might have looked like a Taijutsu specialist, but in truth, under his robes hid a vastly different assortment of weapons, some of which were truly unique.

"Shut up!" Fujimoto Shoko grabbed the boy's head and swiftly delivered a kneecap to his face, sending the boy on the ground, whining in pain, "Damn, the more I hurt him the less he understands it with the *fate* crap." The girl stood with a sleeveless brown jacket, a fishnet armor, a pair of fingerless black gloves, short beige shorts, her blond hair was cut short, as her violet eyes darted around, no longer hidden by the thick glasses, a tomboyish girl to say the least of her behavior.

"That had to hurt..." Ichigawa Saya moved closer to Yugoro, gently getting lower, while making sure her Kimono remained unscathed by the dirt on the ground, and then she proceeded to gently heal the broken nose of Yugoro, who was still whining about it. Saya's dark hair had grown slightly longer, but had been knotted into a sort of ponytail that somehow, defying gravity, seemed always to be glued on her right shoulder. Her brown eyes then turned to Shoko, as she muttered.

"Ladies should be refined, ape."

"Who're you calling an ape, Yuki-onna?"

"At least I'm still a female, you Son Goku."

"Are you picking a fight? Huh?"

"BRATS!" C yelled, pinching the bridge of his nose, why couldn't all students be like Naruto? A bit of talking, a bit of laughing, but then straight down to practice, speaking of which, he wasn't seeing Yugito anywhere, obviously dishing *her* students out to him at the first available moment. She had come back from Takigakure slightly nervous, but had said nothing more. She had mentioned, repeatedly, how Naruto had seemed so different from the usual, which had brought forth A's argument of going over there one week earlier, to make sure *everything* was fine, and to *train* in the village of Konoha. Strangely the forth had been complacent on that, for some reason, and everything seemed fine, if not for the fact that the amount of pink colored people or that had pink on their clothes or hair in Konoha, at first arrival, had seemed slightly disturbing.

"So…same stuff for you, you all right?" Hayari, at the question asked by C, nodded sheepishly. She didn't even know why they were there. They had done D missions and that hellish higher ranked one had been abruptly stopped, and they had been forced to return immediately, without stopping, then more D missions, a couple of actual C-level missions...but they weren't Chuunin material, they were more bag of potatoes, carried around by their sensei.

Yugito-sensei had been a nice sensei, but sometimes, she just had her head over the clouds, and it was something strange to see and feel. It was like, looking at them, she simply looked through them and at someone else.

Mogura simply looked around, sniffing the air, before smiling.

"I know where to find Naruto-kun, I'll be going," with that, he slowly began walking, letting his body sway a bit more than a normal human would, but after all, his arms and legs had developed through training in a completely different way, making them as thick as logs, as he had been used to the motion of digging through the earth's crust like moles usually did, and had obtained a natural affinity with Earth elements.

"Ramen stand," Shinkansen said, explaining his teammates actions, "Mogura sees little to nothing, but he smells and senses tremors pretty fine," with that, the blue haired boy followed his teammate, as C actually… Well, he wanted to see Naruto too.

When they met, C smiled at Naruto, who instead simply dashed at the medic-nin, hugging him, before giving the high-five to Mogura, and actually having to hold his own hand for a while, in an over-exaggerated motion of pain, because the boy's grip was something different. Hayari's face blushed slightly red, as she saw the clearly older boy who had such a handsome face. Shinkansen chuckled at that, while, on the other hand, Shoko pointed her finger at Naruto, and yelled out loud.

"Naruto-kun! I'm going to become the first female Raikage in Kumo's history! You won't beat me to it!"

"Oh Son Goku! Keep quiet," Saya muttered, rolling her eyes over.

"Naruto-san, it's fate that has decided we meet again on such a warm day, I can certainly feel…" as much as Yugoro would have wanted to keep saying something, Shoko interrupted with an elbow hit on the stomach, finishing the sentence for him.

"Feel this in your ribs! And I told you to stop it with the fate crap, you useless, pathetic excuse of a man!" Naruto raised an eyebrow, and slowly whispered to Saya.

"Did something happen?"

"Yes…they got together…" Saya muttered, sighing, "And that's their way of couple talking, I suppose."

Naruto winced, as Shoko was trying to hold into an arm-block Yugoro, before letting him go with a final kick on the side of the body.

"I hope I never find myself in that situation," Naruto muttered, shaking his head, as Yoru, actually, chuckled lightly, before presenting himself. A set of screams later, everyone was settled to go eat Ramen.

In the end, Teuchi found himself a Kage among his customers, the Raikage. He just was glad he had expanded his business to take over the nearby houses, creating a sort of restaurant with ample tables. Whoever the mysterious eater of ramen was, he always asked the takeaway to be dropped at Konoha's gate, he always paid punctually beforehand, and he always ordered in enormous quantities. Teuchi was curious about who could be, but even if he stayed there, all it happened was that a strong wind sent dust in his eyes, and the next moment, when he opened them again, the food was gone.

So, as Ayame was actually a bit nervous to take orders, Naruto smiled at her, and began taking the order first, soon followed by everyone else, except Yugito, and Darui, who weren't still there.

"So, boy, tell me, does Konoha love pink or is there something like a festival with water balloons?" as the Raikage queried that, Tsunade slowly bit her lower lip, she knew why, she just hoped Naruto wouldn't outright…

"Oh, some time, people try and break in my apartment to trash it… writing with pig blood on the walls stuff like *Demon child*, *Kumo bitch* and the like, so when my snakes capture them at the doorway, they throw them out paralyzed by the poison, and then I cover them in pink paint to make sure they don't try this again. If someone with pink paint comes in, my snakes have the order to maim them," as Naruto spoke with ease, while eating his pork ramen, as Yoru had his own face deep within his own bowl, a small spark of electricity flew from the Raikage's body to that of Killer B, as both the auras of the two brothers had started to slowly tense up.

"Hey bro, you mind telling us,

How they treated you?" as B queried that, the spark being sent back into A's aura of electrostatic charge, Jiraiya coughed, hoping to Kami the boy would at least have some refrain, a little bit.

"Well…first days sucked, but I met some very nice people, and well, shopkeepers didn't want me in their shops, so I had to go with the same clothes for a while, then food was Ramen for a long while, because except Teuchi-san who was nice to me, I couldn't buy anything from the stalls. People threw rocks and stuff at me if I didn't go through the rooftops, and I started poison gathering as a mean to avoid taking the Hokage's charity. That's when I met Anko-Oneechan," at that point, someone's ears twitched, but the blond Jinchuuriki shook her head, first, she was going to find her Otouto, so much for the Raikage telling her to go drinking with them or having a few gambles, Naruto would never be in those areas!

"Who was really strange, but nice," somewhere, a snake mistress sneezed before starting to eat dangos once more, "and then I took down a really enormous snake, that later on became my friend too, and with the poison I got from him, I managed to rent an apartment thanks to Kakashi-sensei without doors, so people couldn't barge in it easily, you know. There was little to nothing in there, but it was fine, until Anko-Oneechan came through with her snakes and her snake furniture, by the way, you have to meet Kuro-san! He was one of my first snakes, and he's really polite and friendly too…"

"Yeah, father always rants about being polite, *It goes a long way, younglings!*" Yoru tried to imitate Kuro's voice, something quite easy, as they were both snakes with hissing sounds nearly identical, to human ears.

"Anyway," Naruto continued, "everything went fine for a while, but then the tenth of October came and…", Naruto's voice died in his mouth, as he shook his head, gritting his teeth before continuing, "that bastard killed Shiro with an explosive tag, and nearly killed me too in the process, setting fire to the apartment complex...luckily I managed to close the gas valve, took me four days of hospital before being discharged, but Anko-Oneechan was there, so it wasn't boring! Then, after taking…this," Naruto pointed to his wrist, where the Konoha's headband was, "that same afternoon I was captured, questioned, and tortured, because they wanted to know if I had stolen the Forbidden Jutsus scroll from the Hokage's office," sparks started to fly from B to A, and backwards, as they actually started to become a sort of voltaic arc between the two, Teuchi gulped, going to the back of his store to grab a thunder rod, just in case.

"Still, Anko-Oneechan came and got me out of there…until I was kidnapped that same night by Mizuki, a teacher of the academy, and brought into a clearing where Katsumi-chan, the daughter of the Hokage, who hadn't passed the exam for Genin, had been conned into stealing the jutsu, at that point, after she took down Mizuki, I came down and Kuro and I killed him like a worthless scum like him was meant to die," as the words came out as slight venom, but without actually hinting to guilt, or sadness for the fact, the Raikage's eyes narrowed, it wasn't much the brat killing someone, that made his eyes narrow, it was the brat killing someone while calling them worthless scum, and while not feeling at least a bit of uneasiness in it, it was like…a seasoned killer…whatever the Hokage had done, then he'd do best to undo, or he'd have hell to pay, that much, was sure.

Jiraiya slightly tensed at the boy's words, as Tsunade's look was worried, the smiling boy was as close to the darkness as he could get, and unless brought back into the light, he'd probably fall head first. Kumo *had* to take him away from Konoha, on that, the Two Sannins were completely on the same wavelength, if they didn't then there would probably be hell to pay for Konoha in the long run, as another Orochimaru would probably appear soon, only this one, would have blue eyes and blond hair.

"then I got team assignment, with Uzumaki-sensei, and two other guys, all to keep track on me," Naruto sighed, "a couple of missions later, we took the Takigakure one, together with Kakashi-sensei and his team, until, in the end, we came back without Katsumi-chan, and when Uzumaki-sensei got herself a trip to psycho village, I had to save Yakumo-chan, one of my teammates, from being nearly *abused* by the woman, it was horrible, Yakumo was outright crying in my arms to save her, and there were walls creaking and demons coming out from the mirrors…you see," he stopped for a moment, at the look of incredulity on the people around him, "Yakumo belongs to the Kurama clan, they can make Genjutsus reality, but at the expense of a part of their sanity, that generates an evil split personality, the seal which kept it in check works on happy emotions, if she feels sad, or filled with grief, or anything similar, it weakens, so I had to save Yakumo, and a ranting woman that says *Katsumi-chan come here!* doesn't work, at all, in making people happy, so I snapped at the woman, and that's when I left with Yakumo, because otherwise, it would have turned even messy."

Tsunade frowned, so that was how it went, the Kurama girl had been close to a mental breakdown of her own, after a day of Kushina's abuses, and if Naruto hadn't acted like the knight in shining white armor, the seal would have probably broken to unleash a Genjutsu reality, a really horrible one too.

"the intervals between the important facts are of me training, Kuro growing and having a child called Yoru, whose this little rascal here," Naruto pointed with a small grin at the snake, who took the moment to take his head out of the bowl, with a satisfied snake-face, to hiss.

"I am not *little* I'm *in growth*," before turning back to his bowl of ultra-spicy ramen of doom.

"Well, yeah, then me creating a scroll of summons, meeting a certain white snake," Jiraiya and Tsunade gasped, before yelling, at the same time.

"YOU MET WITH HAKUJA!"

"And he doesn't even think it's important," Tsunade muttered, shaking her head in disbelief.

"He met with the damn frigging Sennin of snakes, the father of Manda, the boss of snakes, and he…he's not caring and he says it's not important, it's an interval!" Jiraiya let his hand pass through his hair, he'd start pulling his hair out, had he not a need for it for one of his techniques.

Naruto shrugged, "Well, anyway, after that I met with this nice Oba-chan here, and the next day Otou-san grabbed me, end of the story of my life in Konoha."

As Naruto turned to his side, he saw Killer B, but not A, the Raikage had actually disappeared in the blink of an eye, which made Naruto raise an eyebrow to the Hachibi Jinchuuriki, who muttered.

"The bro's gone to have a chat,

With that damn bastard and the stupid hat,

Blood will flow and limbs will fly,

For there's hell to pay oh yay," as B said that with a sort of murderous tone, he slowly nodded, pointing at the lightning rod that Teuchi had brought at the counter, that as now a melted chunk of steel.

As the tales of what had happened during Naruto's stay in the village became known, Teuchi had begun to think that maybe, maybe, he'd better relocate to Kumo…because judging by the sparks around his place, a storm was coming, literally, on Konoha.

Jiraiya gulped, he had at least thought Naruto would keep some things for himself, but when queried…he had answered, with everything.

The Raikage wasn't even there for Jiraiya to try and calm him down. No, he was already at the Hokage's office, dashing through the door that exploded to smithereens, as Minato had barely the time to launch one of his three pronged Kunai and Hiraishin himself out of harm's way. His desk and his paperwork weren't that lucky however. Darui, who had just left the building, thought about doing something, but then shrugged, his boss seemed far too furious for him to intervene on the matter…and he wouldn't kill an Kage in his office…he hoped.

"YOU TORTURED HIM!" A was already on the man once more, ready with a lariat, but Minato, this time, had the time to Kawarimi himself with what remained of a chair, before throwing a volley of kunais all around the room.

"We could…" flicker out of A's punch, "talk about," a kick this time, "like normal," a head butt, "civil persons," a lightning bolt that missed the Hokage's by an hair's breadth, "and you *are* infringing the alliance." The Raikage stopped for a moment, before pointing at an even bigger murderous aura in Konoha.

"You know. I think that all those who came to the Genins exams from Kumo have the same opinion of you right now."

"He's still alive?" Minato rhetorically queried to the Raikage, who grunted a nod, "then the alliance holds, *how* effectively the weapon gets kept depends on Konoha, as long as it is returned alive and working."

"You damn fucking bastard," A spat out the words together, while his right arm shot forward in an accusing gesture, "you convinced us to sign it because you confirmed he was your…"

"Silence!" Minato snapped, "That secret is protected, or do you wish the land of iron to come around?" A gritted his teeth, spitting to the side, on the Hokage's carpet.

"One day, you'll find out that through treachery, you won't get yourself love!" A stormed out of the office, as some nearly electrocuted to death Anbus rolled in, their masks covered in sooth.

"Sir?"

"Everything is right, the Raikage is *enjoying* his stay here, and he made it a bit vocal," Minato smiled to the Anbus…who nodded before resuming their positions. They kind of wondered how the Raikage was when pissed, if this was his *enjoyable* tone.

Minato turned to watch the city. There were Anbu assigned all around the city, watching the gates, yet, he wondered, where Kushina was.

He let a hand pass through his hair, as his blue gaze turned to the city's bustling streets. Kushina was somewhere, certainly. She couldn't have left the gates, she couldn't have left Naruto. Or maybe she had, maybe she had decided to look for Katsumi first, trusting Naruto to him. Then, why leave like that, like a madwoman, why not equip herself in the Namikaze's safe house? She had the seal to get there, in a scroll, for safety. He cursed himself under his breath, he should have placed *some* sort of seal on Kushina, to be able to reach her in a matter of seconds, but after their divorce, she had removed anything that belonged to him, seals included. Only the chakra suppressor one had been allowed, and for emergency reasons. The Namikaze manor wasn't any longer *his* to start with, as he was usually crashing on the Hokage's couch for a while, while looking for a manor to buy, somewhere. He had placed Kushina under Anbu and a legendary Sannin's surveillance. He had thought there would be no need for anything more.

He should have used his powers as the Hokage to force her into accepting seals on her persona, but even in her madness, she had refused. He could overrun her decision, he was sure he could, but then…he still loved her, he still loved her, even when she had spoken to him in Takigakure, pleading him to consider Naruto as her son. She would have gone as far as being called a whore by Konoha's people, just to be able to call him son, and be called Kaa-san, in front of everyone. She'd go that far, and yet he…he had refused. There was no lover, none known, it wouldn't have worked. They'd connect the dots. The accusing stare that Kushina had sent him, before he had brought back Naruto, the loving one of her, the cold, calculative one of the boy. How could he not be diffident?

"Hokage-sama," a Root anbu appeared in a flicker in his office, "we found her…she's moving towards Ichiraku's ramen,"

Minato immediately turned around, a pained face appearing on him, before nodding.

"I'll go there right away." In a moment, he opened the window, and threw the Kunai, marking it as his destination as he appeared, a second later, in mid-air, with the Kunai falling, and swiftly grabbing it again, throwing it at a different angle, to land straight in front of a covered in blood Kushina, who was wearing a nightgown that was slightly torn. The people around them had moved out of the way when the woman had passed, walking wobbly on her legs, some had recognized her, and had been muttering if something had happened, for her to be like that. Some had thought the Hokage's wife had been attacked by a monster, or an enemy ninja, and with the recent influx of foreign ninjas for the Chuunin exams, the murmur had become something like this:

"_Ninjas from foreign villages have ambushed in the night the Hokage's wife, kidnapping her, she escaped from her captors and managed to get back in the village safely." _

It was wonderful how fast men and women can come up with reason for someone's strange behavior.

When one Medic-nin had gotten her hand nearly slashed off by chakra chains, nobody had dared go near the Uzumaki again, nobody, but Minato, who now stood in front of his wife with a really pained look.

"Ku…Kushina-hime?" The stare he got back was something…dead, something filled with hatred and anger. Something utterly opposed to what his wife, his smiling wife who loved ramen, used to be. It had the glint of madness.

"She…She stole…Naruto," the voice muttered, in a slight rasp, "M…My Naruto…"

"Kushina…did *it* activate?" Minato queried softly, his tone worried, his eyes slowly turning sadder.

"N-Naruto…where is…he?" Kushina's eyes were sort of white, the only reason she was walking was sheer determination.

"You used the Infuin: Kai that Tsunade had put on you years ago…right?" Minato asked once more, as Kushina, slowly, gurgled.

"Y-Yes…Naruto…give me…Naruto."

"I'll go get Naruto…but you'll get rest now, okay?" Minato slowly moved his hands on Kushina's shoulders, as the woman, her eyes' glint of madness slowly fading, nodded.

"Na…Naruto…I want…" and then, with a swift move, Minato pressed a nerve on his ex-wife's neck, making her faint within his arms, before dashing off, swiftly, to the Namikaze manor. Someone had forced his wife to activate the Infuin: Kai, the yin release technique that Senju Tsunade had on her forehead, and that the Senju had placed on Kushina's back, to make sure she'd at least be fine during the twin's birth, and that had then be placed once more, because, after all, it *was* useful in life or death matters. It coupled with the Sozo Saisei, the creation rebirth, to regenerate all wounds and force the body's organ back to work, as long as there was a heartbeat, and the head wasn't detached from the body, however, since it wasn't easily done without the slug Sannin, Kushina would have used it only on a near-death state, minimum. There was something else, too, something that Minato had stored as the back-up plan, inside of Kushina, something that he had grabbed after waking up after the Kyuubi's aftermath, something that he had stored, something, that something, that he had promised himself would never have to come of use, and that instead, it had. Even the creation rebirth wouldn't have been able, alone, to mend certain types of damage. He wanted his wife to live on, no matter what, and if the masked man returned, with him dead, he at least wanted her to be able to protect his daughter, Konoha, and by definition even Naruto. Still, why did it start to bleed into her? It had to be resonating with *that*. It had to be that the answer. If it was the problem, then it had to be the answer too.

Now Minato was biting his lip, he was at a turning point, as he slowly eased his wife to sleep, on her bed, this time slipping in her chakra suppressor seal also a tracker one, he had to think.

He needed Naruto near his wife, until she at least recuperated some sort of sanity.

He needed his wife to be safe, and sane, and he needed her to be kept in check. Naruto needed to be convinced, however, he couldn't force him, so he had to offer him something. Something he knew the boy would go to great lengths for. It was the only solution, but it was the difference between the village and his wife. He had to make a choice. He had to choose between his duty, and his love.

He shook his head, staring at the Hokage's hat, before chuckling just so slightly.

"What a stupid man I am," he muttered, slowly easing himself down the stairs, reaching for the door, "blind, blind man," he added, as he closed the door behind him, "Sleep well, Kushina-hime," and with that he was off.

Minato moved, appearing in the blink of an eye in his office, and gritting his teeth.

He could call Danzo. He could have Naruto subjected to a Genjutsu years ago. Now, however, he could not. The Raikage would find that something was off in the boy. There was a sensor ninja too in the mix, and he couldn't risk it backfiring. He needed something that would work, one hundred percent work, without problems or risks...he needed something that wouldn't be seen until it hit.

He made a decision then, as he read an Anbu's report that had just been neatly dropped on his table.

"Call Tensho and have Tsunade and Jiraiya arrive," and with that order, the Anbu nodded and disappeared.

*Sakura*

Sakura had woken up, groaning just so slightly from the pain she felt on her right side of the boy. Even without it actually burning, she still felt the pain of the flesh being melted in her dreams, and that made it real when she woke up. She looked out of the window, vaguely recalling what had happened when she had gotten home, her mother's questioning and her father's uncaring attitude. She hadn't answered, going straight to sleep, because she was tired. She was tired even though she had slept basked in warmth. She could feel it, that warmth. That warmth that had protected her against all harms and that had guarded her making her feel safe. It wasn't like Sasuke, who was known to be strong, yet kept everyone away. Naruto was strong, yet he helped others. She was sure of it. She was sure the gentle Anbu with the wolf mask, that she had been questioned about, was Naruto, but it didn't matter to her if they told her he was a killer. She knew it couldn't be true. Naruto wasn't a killer. He was kind. He was gentle. The Hokage's wife was a murderous psychotic person, Naruto wasn't, he had saved her life, had come for her, to save her, that alone made her feel like a new person. It made her feel determined to become a Kunoichi, one who could be worthy of walking at his side, of holding his hand.

She had to become strong, and Naruto wasn't the type who loved fawning. He was the type who loved action. That was why, starting that day, she was going to train even harder than before, and the next day, and the day that followed. She felt just a tinge of fear. What if they asked her about the Hokage's wife death? What if they asked her if she knew where she had disappeared? That wasn't going to go well. She wasn't going to be able to last against torture. She needed to come up with an alibi on where she went last night. It was at that moment, when she had just sat down in the kitchen that her father spoke to her with worry in his voice.

"Last night, did you see anything strange?" it was a first to actually be asked something by her father, and by her mother, so, biting her lower lip, she shook her head.

"Foreign shinobis, maybe from Amegakure, or Iwa even, have tried to kidnap the Hokage's wife in the night,"

_Was this Naruto's alibi? Did he go this far not to have me involved?_

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise, before clenching her right fist, Naruto had gone this far to protect her, so…

"But they failed,"

_What?_

"The Hokage's wife was found clearly shocked and covered in blood walking along the street."

_That's a lie, it's a lie. It has to be a lie._

Sakura started to shiver, as she had seen it, she had seen the Ninjato pierce straight through Kushina's head! The woman should, have, been, DEAD.

"The Hokage then came around, and brought her to safety, are you feeling unwell?" her father queried her. No doubt he was, she was shivering and trembling, as her eyes were showing the shock and the fear of having heard something impossible.

"I…I'm going back…to sleep…fever…maybe." She slowly got up, making her way to the bathroom, where she couldn't help but puke what little breakfast she had had in Naruto's house. A thought crossed her mind…what was going to happen to Naruto now?

Another one, scarier than the first, came once more…

What was going to happen to her?

*Team Kakashi*

"So…he's late," Kakashi chuckled just so slightly, as Kurenai rolled her eyes over. Team practice should have begun already, but someone was missing, that someone being Naruto.

"I wonder who he learned that from," Kurenai replied, as on her side, Kiba had simply fallen asleep, while Hinata had started fidgeting once more, and Shino, well, he was being Shino near a tree. Kakashi's two students instead were standing behind their sensei, Yakumo, the girl she had homeschooled in Genjutsu, looked brighter and healthier than ever, her physique was more toned, and she had a more sane color on her face, while the other boy…he was pale, and strange, taking notes on a small bloc notes without worries.

"Sorry I'm late! Otou-san arrived and I just *had* to be with him!" as Naruto arrived, running, waving, and yelling, Kakashi raised an eyebrow…he couldn't mean…

"Boy! Damn you've gotten fast!" the Raikage of Kumo, A, actually ran at a leisurely pace, as he got near the two Jounin-senseis and the rest of the Genins there.

"The…The Raikage is your father?" Kurenai slightly paled, and looked at Kakashi, just why, in Kami's world, had the Raikage's son ended up in Kakashi's team of Genins!

"Well! When I heard the boy was going to train, I couldn't help myself! I sent the rest to settle down, and I came right here to watch my boy spar! Not a problem, I take it?" The Raikage smiled as he said that, but it was the same smile that Yakuza boss made when they told someone that they wouldn't mind taking half their income, daily.

"None at all, Raikage-sama," Kakashi said, all for easing the relations between two alliance's members.

"Boss! You're late! I want to show you how strong I've gotten with Akamaru!" as Kiba stood up, moving closer, he just barely caught the words *Raikage-sama*, and looked at the big tanned muscled man, with blond hair, before whistling.

"So he's the Kage of Kumo? Is it true that he can send electricity all through his body? Like a sort of bug zapper!"

"KIBA!" Kurenai yelled, punching on the head the Inuzuka, who whined.

"Ah! Well, that *is* the reason the jutsu was developed in the first place," at that, everyone else sweat dropped, "What? It's true, with mountains, storms, lake, and all that humidity, mosquitoes and flies abound, so it was easier that way: Real men zapped them with their bodies!"

"Otou-san! You're embarrassing me," Naruto whined, rolling his eyes over. At that, Kakashi froze for a moment.

Naruto had just whined.

He had just acted like an eleven year old kid.

No, it had to be some sort of hallucination, maybe too much Icha-Icha reading last night and today.

Sai was jolting down notes with the same furious behavior a caffeine addicted secretary would be, while Yakumo simply stared in awe at the Raikage and at Naruto's behavior.

Shino was in doubt wherever to feel offended, as his bugs clearly were, or not, because after all, maybe, the Raikage had said that as a joke.

Kurenai tried a small smile, before turning to Kakashi.

"Well, let's get started, team fighting or one against one?" The silver haired Jounin thought about it for a moment and then chuckled.

"Team fighting, but no killing, so either dose the chakra correctly for jutsus, or avoid using them…worst comes to worst, we'll stop you from seriously harming each other: remember that there is the exam in a week, so be careful…" as Kakashi said that he, Kurenai, and the Raikage moved away from the training's ground center.

Naruto nodded to Yakumo and Sai, and while he took the front of the position, Yoru tensing in Naruto's right arm, Yakumo stood behind him at his left, while Sai at his right.

On the other side, Shino stood in the back, while both Kiba and Hinata took the front, both already in a fighting position.

"Begin!" as Kakashi yelled that, Kiba's right fist met with Naruto's right fist, while Yakumo jumped backwards, an Oni appearing at her back, holding a mace in its right hand, and Sai began drawing on the scroll.

As Hinata dashed straight against Sai, her Byakugan active, the Oni's mace came down near her, making her eep, but jump sideways to avoid it. The byakugan had shown her it was a Genjutsu, yet why did the air move? Why did it look…real! As dirt flew, she realized that only some parts of the Oni were actually solid, so, she changed her target to Yakumo, diving straight for her, her right hand ready to aim at her chakra points, when Sai finished his first drawing, sending out an ink lion. That's when Shino's mass of insects covered Hinata's side, launching against the ink, sucking it of its chakra and reducing the lion to a whelping puddle. Sai narrowed his eyes, swiftly making hand symbols, as Yakumo felt Hinata's hand press against her right shoulder's point, barring the chakra from coming through her and making her cry out in pain, as the Oni became a twirling mass of cudgels, that went down on Hinata, who, showing a great nimbleness, used specific outputs of chakra from her fingers to avoid, or redirect, the cudgels, all the while pressing on the other girl.

Naruto had in the meantime chuckled, as following the right fist Kiba had gone for an head butt, unexpected, but not un-counterable, as the blond haired boy, thanks to his increased size, had managed to simply throw Kiba on the ground, using his jacket.

"You know, jackets are a liability in battle," Naruto said, as Kiba, growling as he lashed his hands upwards, grabbed Naruto's own green jacket, trying to pull him down.

"Listen who's talk…yelp!" the green jacket came undone, under Kiba's hand, to reveal a slithering mass of snakes that bit, and bit hard, on the Inuzuka's hands, making him wince in pain and roll sideways, as the snakes slowly slithered back, reforming Naruto's jacket.

"All is a weapon, young Kiba-kun," Naruto said in a sort of sensei-ish manner, making the Raikage raise an eyebrow towards Kakashi.

"He has this bouts of sensei…he's good." The copy-cat ninja said, chuckling.

"I'll show you *my* move then!" Kiba yelled, before going on all fours.

"Shikyaku no Jutsu!" as chakra enveloped the Inuzuka's body, specifically arms and legs, Naruto grinned, letting his neck crack for a moment, to ease his shoulders.

"Bring it on," the next moment, with an increase in speed, Kiba's right hand slashed through the air, to impact against Naruto's left forearm, where the white armguard resonated with the hit, through the momentum, Kiba's left leg was spun forward in a crescent moon kick, that was blocked by Naruto's right hand, and, at that moment, Kiba's right hand held the grip on the armguard, pulling Naruto down to gain enough momentum with his remaining right leg to kick the blond haired boy in the stomach, letting go of him and skittle on the ground on his back, swiftly getting back up and readying himself to pounce at the blond, once more.

"I got a hit in!" Kiba was actually happy about it, before he suddenly felt his right hand not responding.

"I did better," Naruto replied with a chuckle, "the armguards let chakra pass through, electrical one has the ability to numb, you grabbing my armguard meant I could jolt some lightning chakra through your hand," Kiba growled, before grabbing Akamaru, and placing him on his head.

"Then, Boss, time to get serious! Jūjin Bunshin!" as Akamaru transformed into a more feral form of Kiba and both took on a battle stance, staying on top of the original's back, Naruto tensed.

"Gatsūga!" the spinning motions that resulted from both the ninja and his ninken charged at Naruto with unparalleled speed, who, placing his hands on the ground, yelled out loud.

"Kuchyose no Jutsu: Scales of the forest!" Kiba and Akamaru impacted against a strong sturdy surface, that send them to recoil backwards, seeing perplexed at what looked like a wall of stone.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, surprised.

"So that's why he asked me about…" he muttered, as the seemingly wall of stone slowly slithered, a fact that made Kurenai pale.

"Hey! Summons shouldn't be valid! And just how did that kid manage…"

The snake stared with his deep eyes at the two and hissed, once, before turning to stare at Naruto, raising a puzzled eyelid.

"It was that of Yoru's fire wall…I'd rather not scorch Kiba." Naruto muttered, scratching the back of his head and looking sideways, embarrassed.

The snake, Scaly-chan, hissed in resignation, shaking her head slowly before dispersing in a puff of smoke.

"Boss! That was so cool right now!" As Kiba said that, Naruto chuckled.

"We're still fighting Kiba," the next moment, Naruto took the offense, catching Kiba off guard and throwing him, once more, on the ground, with Yoru dashing forward from his right arm, and pressing itself against Kiba's transformed form, until it yelped turning back into its normal white puppy form.

Kiba had a kunai placed at his throat moments later.

"Yield?"

"I yield, boss...didn't expect you to be defeated, but I'm catching up, ain't I?" as Kiba was helped up by Naruto, the blond boy nodded.

"That you are, your speed is nearly like mine and the Gatsuga? That was fast...not enough to prevent me from summoning, but trust me, fast." Yoru slithered back into Naruto's arm, as Kiba actually acted a bit embarrassed by Naruto's praise. Kurenai looked at Naruto for a moment.

"You know, I try and reason that he's only an eleven year old kid then he comes out with Sensei-sh words…I'm puzzled. He's good." Kurenai muttered to Kakashi, which earned the man a chuckle.

"Yeah, if he wasn't already taken I'd adopt him," Kakashi said, as the Raikage simply laughed at that.

"Hah! Think what he'll do when he becomes the next Raikage! It's his dream, and I just can't wait for him to grow faster, so that I can get away from the paperwork and get some nice vacation...somewhere."

Meanwhile, the other two sides of the battle had unfolded to a standstill.

Hinata had successfully managed to block half the Tenketsu points on Yakumo, but unless she blocked them all, the Oni form wasn't going to disappear, instead, it was simply dwindling, but still there, protecting the girl from harm having become a sort of armored, but empty inside, samurai, that kept the Hyuga at sword's length. Point was that not all of the sword, or of the samurai, was real. Only little bits that hurt with blunt force when they did hit her. There was no style however, as Yakumo had never seen, nor used a sword, and so she didn't know how they worked. The Kurama girl too was panting, the overuse of chakra was starting to take its toll, and she felt pain. She was still hanging on to sheer will, she didn't want to lose there, not after having gone this far.

"I'm not going to give up!" Yakumo yelled, as, with her final breath, she went for a full out body tackle, if she couldn't win with style, she'd try brute force.

As she charged through, having only the samurai's armor become real, Hinata stared surprised, at that. She…she was afraid of that determination, and so, instead of taking a defensive form, instead of doing anything, she simply eeped as the armor of the giant samurai bonked against her, sending her on the ground, while Yakumo, panting, removed the Genjutsu.

"Wo…Won…right?" she muttered, gasping for air.

"That you did Yakumo-chan, that you did," Naruto said, moving slowly closer to the girl and grabbing her by the shoulder, to hold her up, "now calm down, and take deep breaths, I'll open your Tenketsu points," with that, Naruto slowly began charging his left hand with the healing jutsu, slowly letting his hand move above the hit areas, and to Yakumo, it was like a cool wave of ice had passed on her sore muscles, as she felt, at the very least, a modicum of pleasure.

On the other hand, Sai and Shino were at a standstill. The Aburame's bug simply sucked out all the chakra of the other ninja's ink creations, reducing them to ink before they could land a hit on him. However, doing so made the bugs slow, and thus stopped them from becoming an effective attack against the more agile Sai.

When Hinata fell, Shino raised his right hand, muttering.

"I Forfeit," at that, Kurenai was puzzled, but Kakashi explained.

"This is actually a team exercise. As you can see, he's the last one standing, sure, he could eventually win over Sai, because chakra consumes of Ink jutsus are higher than those of bug users, but then Naruto and Yakumo would have to be defeated next…not an easy feat. In a one versus one, it would have gone differently."

As Naruto gave a quick check-up, and healed those who needed some first aid, he then moved with a grin in front of his father, with Yoru on his head.

"So, was I good, Otou-san?"

"You were good, son, I'm proud of you," as the Raikage ruffled the boys head, Naruto smiled widely, his blue eyes so clear and filled with joy that even Kakashi, for once, felt the need not to make a comment on it. Kurenai coughed getting Kakashi's attention out of that sort of bucolic father-son representation, which still had her think about visiting her own father one day to catch up, and then said.

"Well, I kind of understand that your team is going to ace through the Chuunin exams, isn't it?"

"They could still fail it, but I doubt it. Anyway," as Kakashi was about to say something, an Anbu appeared straight behind him, making him narrow his only eye in perplexity: he hadn't felt this Anbu arrive.

"The Hokage requires the immediate presence of Naruto in his office, only of Naruto." Then, he disappeared as he had arrived.

The voice had been but a murmur, yet why did he feel so suddenly tense?

He had a bad feeling about this as his gut was telling him that.

"…I'll go," Naruto sighed, as the Raikage was about to say something, Naruto shook his head, muttering, "I'm still under their orders, Otou-san…don't worry, I'll choose Kumo, always…see you later!" As he dashed, towards the Hokage's office, he slightly growled, why did the Hokage always have to ruin his days?

"Hey, Naruto…" Yoru muttered after a while.

"Yes Yoru?"

"Are there any cute snakes in Kumo?" Naruto stopped on the roof for a moment, before pondering the question for a long while.

"I think there are some rock snakes, and some water snakes, I don't know about city snakes however," he replied, seriously.

"Good, I hate city snakes, those damn prudes," Naruto chuckled at his friend's words, before landing in front of the Hokage's tower, and walking his way upwards.

It was when he entered the Hokage's office that the air suddenly changed. Inside, there was Tsunade, a man he had never seen before, the Hokage, and Jiraiya. The look of pain on most of their faces was clear.

"I was…called here, Hokage-sama?" Naruto queried, trying to be polite.

"You tried to kill Kushina, but luckily, she survived," Minato said, in a quiet tone as he made the hand sign, cutting off all of Naruto's chakra and making him practically kneel on the ground, the pain in his chest making him hurt, but not shocking him as much as the words.

Naruto's eyes bulged.

Tried to!

_I threw a ninjato through her HEAD. I pierced her body with senbon needles coated in poisons! She should BE DEAD. DEAD. DEAD._

"Oh…you thought she could die that easily, huh? The Red Hot Habanero," Minato chuckled, slightly, before his gaze turned to steel, "you see, Naruto-kun, Tsunade-san here possesses the Yin Release seal, and the creation rebirth jutsu, it enables one to store chakra, that, at a later use, can be used to regenerate all wounds, even near fatal ones."

_I THREW A NINJATO THROUGH HER HEAD. FOR KAMI'S SAKES THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE FATAL!_

…**I'm scared too.**

"And that, coupled with the Uzumaki's vitality, let her survive, even though you had your *couch* try to eat her."

_Wait…no…It can't be._

Even though all ninjas tensed at the sudden puff of smoke coming from Naruto, they narrowed their eyes, as nothing seemed to have happened, the boy no longer had any chakra running through his body, he couldn't have been able to do any jutsus.

"She killed Couch-san, didn't she..." Naruto's gaze was murderous, maybe on the same par as that of Minato.

"You tried to kill, and nearly succeeded in that too, the Hokage's ex-wife, Kushina Uzumaki, a Jounin-sensei and a member of your clan, the Uzumaki clan, and its clan's head. That alone stands for execution, coupled with the fact that inside the Couch's stomach Anbu masks and Anbu-class material has been found, there is more than enough proof to have you sentenced to death, and have Kumo accused of having broken their alliances, and having used you as a spy for their purposes and a saboteur of Konoha's strength,"

Naruto clenched his fists: he had been taken with his hands in the jam, and all because of that red-haired bitch, and now, even Kumo was going to suffer from it.

"But I'm offering you a way out, to come out clean, completely clean." At that, Naruto's eyes widened: what?

"You wouldn't worry about yourself, but you do worry about Kumo, and Kumo's people, don't you?"

Naruto nodded, slightly, while Tsunade's and Jiraiya's face contorted in pain, he was really going to do it...

"Then here is my deal…you will remove your Kumo headband, and place that of Konoha on your forehead, like it should be. You will go through the Chuunin exam and win them for Konoha, you will stay in Konoha for all the five years, and you *Will* bring back the peace of mind of my wife Kushina. You broke her mind and thus you will repair it, Naruto. If, by the end of the time period, you will have managed to successfully heal her mind…I will let you go back to Kumo."

Naruto stared in shock at the Hokage, what game was he playing?

"However, for the pain you have inflicted me, and for the losses, you will, as a matter of fact, cease any and all connection with Kumo, be it through letters, birds, messengers, or anything. You will not speak to, nor exchange words with, any Kumo shinobi of any rank, and you will never, ever, again, try your hand on the bodies of Jounins and Anbus, nor anyone else for what matters. You will furthermore provide the names of any who have assisted you in your endeavor, and, if found equally culprit, they will be handled with accordingly. You played a hard game boy, and you have lost it…make your choice."

Naruto's thought twirled. He had to stay five years, all of them, without…and for the Chuunin exams? He hadn't even seen Yugito yet, where could she be?

He bowed his head, slowly removing his Kumo headband that Minato, having stood up, snatched away before burning it in midair, turning around to Tsunade, who, begrudgingly, held out her necklace.

"This necklace is cursed, Minato…you know it."

"He's already cursed one more won't make a difference." Minato spat back, as the slug princess, a Sannin, but still a member of Konoha, never the less obeyed, putting the necklace around the boy's neck.

"After the Chuunin exams, you will enter the Root program once more, and for the remaining years you will train, and become, a weapon of Konoha, we will use you to our full extent," Minato's eyes narrowed, "and in your free time you will work on restoring Kushina's mind, which means you will have to transfer to the *Uzumaki* mansion by tomorrow, and no talking snakes will be allowed, any more, near you." Naruto's fist clenched hard, as his breathing was turning irregular.

"How did Danzo say? Oh yes…_Konoha's Perfect Weapon,_ obey your Hokage's orders," and with that, the small glint of life in Naruto's eyes, died down.

"Minato…this…this isn't…" Jiraiya would have wanted to say something, but…the boy had killed, repeatedly, Jounins, Anbus, Civilians, with that out of the closet, the boy was another Orochimaru, but he had been forced to, doing this, now, was…suicidal. To say the least, as Kumo would demand explanations for the sudden change in behavior, they would demand answers, and Minato…Minato wouldn't give it to them.

"This is the Hokage speaking!" Minato yelled his eyes alit with fury, as he looked at his former sensei, "And as the Hokage my will is that of the Leaf! There is no way I'll let this monster have fun with the lives of Konoha's citizen without acting!"

_Minato…he's just a kid…you made him a monster when he wasn't one, and now you're forcing him to be one…_

Jiraiya shook his head: that was still his godson! Sure, he might have strayed from the good path, but there was still hope to save him!

"Please, Minato…I understand he must punished, but this far?"

"Silence, Yamato! Verify if the jutsu works."

"You're going to kill him if you try it now!" Tsunade yelled, but Minato, looking back at Naruto's gaze, muttered.

"He's a monster, monsters don't die that easily."

And with that, the necklace around Naruto's neck began scorching in pain, as even the Kyuubi was throwing out its curses at the Hokage, as from *Yamato* hand, a pure white line hit straight at the crystal, resonating, and making Naruto's all body jolt in pain, as he could feel his very own insides crack under the effect of something.

**HE'S cutting… Me…** **BASTARD…**

And with that, Naruto's eyes closed for a moment, pain taking the better of him.

_Don't…don't faint._

He hanged on, barely, to the thread that told him that fainting would be the death of him. He hanged on with sheer will, until Yamato himself began sweating.

"MINATO! It's enough! IT works stop this madness now!" Jiraiya yelled, as the Hokage, making a hand gesture, dismissed Yamato's jutsus, as Naruto began breathing heavily once more.

As Minato did the same, Naruto let out a final breath in relief, his vision a bit clouded and hazed, as he couldn't do much more.

"Now, I will make sure you keep your side of the deal, I will put seals on you. You will not talk, or write, or even hint, about this deal to anyone. If you do, the seals won't kill you…no, they will put you through a Genjutsu, and have you walk all the way to Kumo…where you will unleash the Kyuubi's seal on your own."

Tsunade and Jiraiya both paled.

"Minato…please…this is…extreme." Tsunade too didn't like all this…all this hate, towards a boy. He might have been a bit psycho, fine, but he wasn't outright psychotic, he could still be saved, changed, right now instead, he was being battered, beaten, destroyed.

"This is how far he pushed my hand. This is also how far I will concede…if you will betray this oath, once more, in any way that I have not foreseen, in any way that I will found out…then I will remove all remaining traces of humanity from you, did you understand that, Konoha's perfect weapon!"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Naruto whispered, in a meek voice, as his sight was low, on the ground, his kneeling position had become that of an Anbu awaiting an order, and there was no more trace of anything, on the boy's face.

"Now go get your belongings and transfer in the Uzumaki's guest room… No snakes are allowed in there, drop them in the forest of death and come back, then, I'll place the seals on you." Naruto nodded, silently, before using Shunshin to leave.

"No escort?" Yamato queried, as the boy left without a word.

"There is no need…now, if he'll try anything…it will fall on Kumo's back, and he won't permit that, you will be assigned as his mentor from now on, keep an eye on him," Minato replied, before turning to see the two Sannins.

"Very well then, Jiraiya-san, as the Hokage of Konoha, I'd like you to look for my daughter, Katsumi, everywhere. Go even where you shouldn't be, but I shouldn't tell you that. If you do peep into a hot spring, know that, if I find out, I'll immediately rank you as a missing S-class Nin."

"Minato, you're…" Jiraiya had no words, but an aching heart was all he felt, it was bleeding, and not because he was being accused of not doing his job, but because he was being ordered to do that by Minato, the boy who had laughed and usually played those same tricks with him.

"Tsunade-san! You are now forbidden from leaving Konoha, and are tasked with taking care of Kushina Uzumaki, until she gets better. The same goes for your assistant, Shizune Kato."

"Minato," Tsunade growled slightly, "you are talking to two…"

"Wherever you are Sannins matters not! I am the Hokage, and the council has approved of all of my actions! So go obey your Hokage's orders…RIGHT NOW!" the two sannins growled, as they left, but deep down, both were actually trying to decide who, between father and son, was the real monster.

*Naruto*

Naruto, thankfully, wouldn't need to explain anything to Kuro, or to Yoru. He didn't need to, because the snakes embedded into his jacket would provide the explanation in his place. He wouldn't need to, because it would damn hurt if he tried. He just had to…stick through it, right? It wasn't going to take much. Maybe all he had to do was cuddle the red-haired woman for a while, with a fake smile on his face, and everything would be solved easily.

The difficult part would be ignoring Otou-san. It would be ignoring Yugito-Oneechan, it would be ignoring everyone until the exams was over and done with it. He would be forced to say Kabuto's name, the elder Konoha's ninjas who had helped him by providing him names of evil doers to train upon, which had helped his medical Ninjutsu greatly, experimenting on live persons was better than on corpses. The blood coursing through the veins, the organs beating at their own rhythm, and yet, as he moved into the forest of Death, he sighed. Yoru had actually started calling the big guns, to get him out of the Hokage's office, probably. He scratched the back of his head, as he watched, deep within the bowels of his *secret* base under the forest of death, hordes of snakes with Kumo headbands readying themselves. He would have chuckled at that, but he simply made an awry smile, when Yoru jumped to tackle him and ask him.

"Is everything all right Boss? I've had the guys ready for war! Your word and we march on that bastard! Or we slither, whatever it is! We will avenge Couch-san!" Naruto said nothing, as he gently tapped his jacket to let the snakes fall, hiss a moment to Yoru, who looked puzzled, and then, slowly, got down to exchange hisses with them.

It was over in less than fifteen minutes.

Yoru turned his sad gaze at Naruto, and then, his red eyes kindled with the flame of hatred.

"Boss, you can still summon us. No worries on that. I'll warn father about it, and all will be fine…sucks I can't be with you though…hey Boss," Yoru gently tapped his tail on the boy's hair, "don't worry if I won't be right next to you, I'll still be in there," and as he said that, he chuckled, pointing at the boy's heart, "Furthermore, turns out the second part of the Chuunin exams will be in here, boss. So don't worry about that, we'll cover your back in here. We've seen ninjas go around all day and night, preparing the tower too."

Naruto nodded, well, it was good to know he would play in home.

"Well…it was a pleasure being your right arm, Naruto. I am still your friend, and fiery partner, so off you go before the dust that has gotten in my eyes starts to make me wink. I should…" as Yoru used his tail to obviously let the tears disperse he turned around, as did the boy. This wasn't a farewell. This was just a see you soon.

Naruto exited the forest of death, pondering *how* he should act. Biting his tongue, he realized the only way would be to actually feign being completely in love with Konoha, and Konoha's Nins, and ignore any word directed at him from Kumo ninjas.

_I am in enemy territory. I forgot that for a moment, and this is the punishment. I must not forget: I am in enemy territory._

**You know, for once, I hate the fourth even more than I hate the third. The third did seal me in you, but he never cut off MY chakra…**

Naruto stopped, before descending from the rooftop he was on. Yugito was out of his door, waiting, her back leaned against the door. It hurt.

His chest hurt. She was there, probably searching for him all day, because they hadn't managed to meet yet, and even though she was there, he couldn't meet her. He turned his face to the side: he couldn't meet her like this. He couldn't hurt her by ignoring her, he couldn't do it. He knew he would, one day, but he couldn't do that now. He was in enemy territory. Displaying emotions was wrong. Displaying emotions would get him killed. He was a tool, a weapon, a perfect weapon. He had to steel himself. He had to…

**Stop it, for Kami's sakes. You're hurting me with your thoughts!**

_Shut UP! Do you have any idea how much it hurts! _

**You mean WATCHING FROM THE SIDES! How old do you think I am! I am older than Konoha herself! I was born from the sage of the sixth paths decision! My task was to purge the corruption from the world! From cities of sins to cities of sins, I saw the worst that Human life offered, and I WILL not stay peacefully in the body of an Emo! I'd rather try my luck against your CHAINS.**

_It's just three more years right? I can survive three more years._

**Yeah, this is going to be tough, but you can make it. Now get in by the window.**

_Yes. Thank you, Kurama-baachan._

**Use the –san, you bastard.**

_Kurama-san._

Yugito's careful ears picked something, for a moment, her nose a scent, but as she turned around, nothing. The rooftop was empty. She had thought…she shook her head. Maybe the Raikage had actually found him first. Damn him, he could have warned her! She clenched her fists and bit her lip, so, her Otouto and the Raikage had gone around, maybe even with B and the others, and she had looked around town for nothing. Damn she hated Konoha, some of the people were strange to be completely covered in pink paint. Damn how she hated it for stealing her Otouto away, but maybe he had found a bit of happiness, maybe he was fine. Maybe he wasn't coming home because he was with a girlfriend of his, doing something romantic, she chuckled at the thought, and then, finally, she decided to break in Naruto's apartment. Just to make sure it was his and they hadn't lied to her.

The apartment was clean, and empty. It smelled like if her Otouto had just passed by, but now, he wasn't there. His bed was empty, his dresser was empty, like his shelves, his cupboards and his house had no traces of him, except his smell. Her Otouto had lived there recently, but now…he wasn't there, he was somewhere else. That thought, in its simplicity, scared her. She dashed out of the room, tracking his scent. It didn't matter if it would make her nauseous, as many smells in a village aren't properly perfumes, but she wanted to see him, to know where he was.

She caught a whiff, and she followed it, she followed it away from there, towards where most of the mansions stood. She followed it till she saw the back of her Otouto, knocking at a door after a big garden, and there she stopped. She stopped because the door opened, to reveal the red-haired woman in a nice nightgown, who had her arms crossed around herself, she stopped, because her Otouto, her little brother, said in a clear, happy, voice, words that she dreaded to ever hear.

"I'm home, Kaa-san."

*One Week Later*

Kakashi scowled. He had taken the scowl after seeing that he had been reassigned his bratty team. He had taken the scowl because the Uchiha's brat was even worse than before, the extra guy was a sort of Lee substitute, and the pink haired girl seemed determined, at least, but still had a long way to go before even being *decent*. He scowled, because Naruto had avoided him like liquid fire, and he had done that with every Kumo ninja *ever* seen. His clones dispersed even before getting caught for an explanation, a reason, a why he had become so elusive and so *Konoha* lover. When the Raikage had gone to Kakashi, the copy-cat ninja had promised to try, try and get something from the boy. In truth, all he had gotten was to be ignored by over three hundred different clones, which had all dispersed rather than speaking to him.

One thing was sure, however, Naruto had moved to the Namikaze mansion next to his mother, who had been found, and, even though she was still in probation, the Hokage had gone to great length, showing a steel backbone unlike anything Kakashi had ever seen before, and a shrewdness, that had made Danzo look like a puppy. Truly, Danzo was a puppy when confronted with how the Yondaime had become, a happy puppy, and that was even worse. Tsunade had remained in Konoha, to avoid any potential backslash for Kushina, and, last Kakashi had heard, Yakumo had just barely been saved from being team swapped.

From what he had heard, thanks to his keen ears and drunken talking of other people, Naruto had pleaded and cried straight into Kushina's arms to get his *relative* to come to terms with Katsumi's probable disappearance, somewhere. It had worked. The woman was fine now with the lack of her daughter, even though it would remain a missing in action until she was to be found. That, however, had just meant that now Yakumo was no longer even able to breath, during training, as, in some sort of strange way, *You're my daughter* became *you must avoid suffering my daughter's fate*, which was better, by a long shot, from what was before.

So, Kakashi scowled, as he watched his team enter the building for the first proof of the Chuunin exams, he scowled as he watched Kushina, after a week of therapy, looking no worse than what she was a couple of years before, he scowled, as he saw the dead eyes of Naruto, the moment the boy wasn't seen by his *relative*, he scowled, because Naruto didn't smile, he didn't laugh, he didn't even try and speak to the other Genins from Kumo. He simply walked. He simply went. He was no better than a tool, pointed to do something, that…that made Kakashi scowl.

"They grow so fast!" Kushina exclaimed with a small giggle, next to Kakashi.

"Yes…that they do, Kushina-san," Kakashi replied, carefully, "and one day, they'll take on their own Genin teams, and bring them out in missions too,"

"Yes!" Kushina nodded, "But mostly, I'm sure Naruto-kun is going to become one of the guardians of Konohagakure in the future, so he won't ever have to leave the village again," at those words, Kakashi nodded silently.

"I am sure he'd be a great guardian, if that is his dream…"

"Obviously it is!" Kushina pouted, "He said so himself: Konoha rocks and Kumo sucks dattebayo!"

Kakashi's only visible eye narrowed, before turning his gaze sideways.

"Well…when one is that sure…there's nothing to be afraid of."

"Precisely, want to come to get some ramen, Kakashi-kun?"

"I'm sorry Kushina-san…I just lost my appetite," with that, the copy-cat ninja went to his book, starting to move away from the woman who, shrugging, went to grab some ramen. The four Root Anbus escorting her without saying a word, to *enhance* her protection against the tries of the foreign shinobis who had kidnapped her, in the night.

Tsunade was somewhere nearby too, ready to intervene, but otherwise always with a look of disgust, for something the silver-haired Jounin couldn't understand.

Kakashi scowled once more. Nobody could ask Naruto, and nobody could ask Kushina, and nobody could obviously ask the Hokage, all they got back was being ignored, brought away by Kushina's guards, being told it's an SS-class secret by the Hokage…it made Kakashi scowl. Something had to have happened, somewhere, sometime, that had turned the happy, smiling brat who said *Otou-san* to the Raikage into a dark boy who refused contact. The Raikage had yelled at foul play, Minato had shrugged, claiming ignorance, and that…he'd have to wait three years for the land of iron Genjutsu expert to arrive.

Naruto stared right ahead of him, ignoring the commotion from two chuunins, who were blocking the mass of other chuunins wannabe from entering the exam's door.

He didn't care. He kept moving, until someone tackled him with his own shoulder.

Turning his gaze up, he saw a blue haired girl, with green eyes, staring at him with a grief-filled expression, on her forehead, stood the mark of the Oto-nins, the ninjas of the sound village that had arrived to take part in the exams.

"Excuse me, could you please help us go through those two mean people? Please?" she actually… whimpered, to him? Naruto narrowed his eyes at the two chuunins then sighed, shaking his head and pointing at the classroom's wooden panel, with the numbers on.

"What floor is this?" he whispered silently.

"The…third floor, right?" the girl hesitated, as a red-haired girl moved close, looking a bit annoyed.

"Sumire-chan, you got any luck finding help? Oh…hi, my name is Karin by the way!" the girl had flamboyant red hair, and a pair of glasses, belonging to Oto too. Naruto raised an eyebrow again, to her, before muttering.

"Naruto," as he whispered that, he shook his head, "and I already helped you".

"Naruto-kun…oh, fine! Right, I'll do it!" Yakumo pointed at the wooden panel.

"IT marks the third floor, but if you look carefully, we're at the second floor. It's one floor above, right?" Yakumo smiled at that, as Naruto rolled his eyes over, walking silently towards the stair. The two chuunins standing guards smirked, before dispersing the Genjutsu.

"You had to talk," Naruto muttered to Yakumo, who looked back at the boy with a pout.

"They're fellow ninjas! We should help each other out!"

"I help only my team, and my friends," Naruto whispered, before setting his gaze on the actual classroom, and entering slowly, his eyes staring at the people already inside, and sighing. There were some Suna-nins, some Oto-nins, some ninjas from the Grass village, some from Konoha, those from Kumo but the vast majority was from Konoha. Among those, a pink-haired hair caught his attention, but the blond haired boy did nothing, he couldn't, it would be a problem later on. He had to act detached. He could do it. The pain in his heart was not worthy of consideration, he had an objective, he was in enemy territory.

Naruto sat down, taking a seat in the front line, without a care in the world. The inspector for the exam, Ibiki Morino, smirked at the boy, but said nothing, as the stare he got back was that of a dead man. He had seen those stares already, from people he had to torture till the point of rupture. He had come to like the boy after all he had killed Aoi, the damn bastard who had brought the death of Idate, his little brother, into fruition. Yet now he stood there, with dead eyes, like if the world had fallen onto him. That, that made Ibiki puzzled.

"Well brats! Today is a nice day to take a test!" he yelled to the classroom, as everyone turned his gaze to him, "First things first, the test is made of ten questions, the tenth will be told in the final fifteen minutes, till then, good luck answering. If you get caught cheating, know that you will be subtracted two points. You start with ten, for all of your team, so if one of you gets caught five time, it's over for everyone! Got it! Well then, start!"

As he saw the ninjas wince over the papers, Ibiki grinned, everyone was going to have a tough time during the test: the questions were chuunin materials, or worst, only by copying by one of the two chuunin hidden in the mixture, would they be able to do it, he was so sure of it…that when he saw Naruto, in first line, not even writing a line, but staring at him, with his dead eyes, he started to think the boy had a death wish.

Did he really come here only to annoy him? Ibiki threw a kunai at someone who had tried, for five times, to copy in a grossly stupid manner.

"You're out!" in the end, after the first cutting down, Naruto hadn't even written down a single sentence, a single word, his eyes still staring at Ibiki, it was starting to get to the interrogation department man's nerves. That stare, that blue cold stare that seemed to look straight through his soul, that of a dead man, it was unnerving, cold, shivering, it was making him cringe inside.

"Well," Ibiki said in the last fifteen minutes, when he saw that those that remained were still a number, "time for the tenth question."

Yakumo sighed in relief, she had managed to answer them all, being home schooled meant she had a lot of time to read, and study on her own, and that, that meant she had actually known the answers for those questions.

Sai had done Root training. Still, to double check, a small Ink Flea had moved silently around the other's sheets, and had then returned to stay on his paper, writing down the correct answers.

"Before taking it, however, you must understand this: If you fail to answer this correctly, you will fail the exam and be forever a Genin, if you do not take it, you will fail the exam, but you will be able to try again next year. Do you understand?"

"What? We went this far already, and you're telling us we're going to fail if we make it wrong!" Yagura screeched.

"How fair can that be!" Hayari added to the murmurs in the classroom.

"Silence! I am the exam instructor this year and I make the rules! Choose wisely! You have three minutes!" With that, Ibiki turned to look at Naruto's face, which was still dead. That was pissing him off, so, he muttered, after seeing how many were renouncing the feat.

"Well, you think you're going to get a passing grade by writing all down in fifteen minutes, brat?" Naruto…chuckled. Then he outright started laughing, bringing all those who hadn't yet raised their hand to stop and look at the boy in the first row.

"Ohi, what's so funny?"

"That guy and that one are Chuunin class, why would they be here?" as Naruto answered the question with another question, Ibiki sighed, so that was it, Naruto had probably already met the two chuunins somewhere, and had thus come to the conclusion that something was off. Coupled with him saying out loud how immediate cheating wasn't resulting in out…it meant the answers had to be copied.

"Maybe they like to take the test for good old times?" Ibiki said back, "Still, why didn't you try and copy then?"

"I don't need to. I know what your tenth question is, differently from them…I asked around for your previous time doing the exam, the tenth question is a do or die one, the rest, is just a plus…I made my homework, Ibiki-san…you should have done yours." A tick mark appeared on the man's scarred face, as he narrowed his eyes, the boy's aura…it was cold, dark.

"What if I had changed it?"

"Ah…that's a risk I'm ready to take, I don't care about rank, Ibiki-san: I once said to someone I knew that a rank is but a name. What matters, is the power behind it. The guts to go through everything, no matter the names or the ranks," At his words, Sakura, who had already answered every question, closed her eyes, remembering the boy's words, that day, when she was with Sasuke, and Katsumi. It was still him, albeit his face seemed to have seen a ghost, albeit his jacket had become a mixture of dark red and dark black, albeit his shirt was dark, with a blood red spiral of the Uzumaki clan in front, and his cargo pants had been removed to make room for long black trousers, his white armguards had turned jet black, and his hair had been cut down, spiky, but not too much, so that he actually resembled the fourth Hokage in every way. Putting the two in the same room might have them confused for twins, as Naruto wasn't yet there, but would soon probably reach the man's height.

The bandana-covered man of the interrogation department sighed, as he raised his hand…

"You all pass. Time's up, and those who stay get to the second part…as for you…" Ibiki moved closer to Naruto, whispering, "I'll let your lack of respect go, for the service you've given me…but bite your tongue next time…Anko-san will be the death of me!"

Naruto rolled his eyes and nodded, in silence, as the window to the side of the classroom broke, to reveal in a puff of smoke the entry of Mitarashi Anko, who, looking in the room, proceeded to yell.

"IBIKI! You've gone soft! There are more teams here than at graduation school!"

"Give the fault to your little brother here," Ibiki pointed to Naruto, who stared, with a small sparkle of hope in his eyes, to Anko, before that sparkle died down as Anko herself bit her lip, "he convinced the others to stay, and he even explained the real reason for the test before I could!"

"Well, then it seems he's good at that. Anyway, for those who stayed, for the second part of the test, meet me at the gates of the forest of death, in half an hour!"

Naruto sighed, slowly moving towards the exit, but stopping, as the blue haired Oto-nin from before moved in front of him, and, fidgeting, muttered.

"Thank you for your words of encouragement, Naruto-san! You really helped us!" Her colleague, the red-haired Karin, rolled her eyes at the fidgeting of the blue haired one, before muttering.

"Yeah, yeah, now move along Sumire-chan, Yoroi's waiting for us," as Karin actually brought the girl away by force, even before the blond boy could say anything, Yakumo moved closer to Naruto, staring at the boy with a worried expression.

"Naruto-kun…"

Naruto's clenched his right hand strongly, before muttering, in a low growling tone.

"Yakumo-chan…let's get going, the sooner we go, the sooner we finish."

"You," The voice that spoke was quiet, but made Naruto turn around, as it was new to him, "you're interesting." The red-head that talked to him had bags under his eyes, a gourd on his back, and the Suna headband on his forehead. His arms were crossed, and he stared, his look unfazed, at Naruto, who looked back at him. To his sides were his teammates, both Suna nins, one with an horrid purple make-up and a sort of covered in clothes gourd, while the other had an enormous metallic fan on her back.

"And you…You're strange," Naruto replied, his eyes narrowing.

The boy with strange purple makeup on his face gasped, before warning.

"Don't make Gaara mad you fool!"

"It's going to be the death of you!" The girl with the giant metal fan spoke next, as there actually was worry in her voice.

"You reek of blood. Are you strong?" as the boy, called Gaara, spoke softly, sand was slowly starting to drift from his gourd, as both his teammates were starting to get nervous.

"Gaara, don't make a fuss here, please," the female spoke with worry in her voice.

"Temari, shut up or I'll kill you," Gaara replied, without removing his gaze from Naruto, "are you strong?"

Naruto grinned, "Find out for yourself…I'll wait for the day we fight," and with that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Gaara's eyes bulged. HE had been belittled by the boy...a Bunshin, instead of the real deal.

"What is his name?" Gaara queried to the two remaining teammates, as Sai said nothing, Yakumo found herself being forced to answer.

"Naruto…He is Naruto."

"Naruto, huh…Huhu, mother will love his blood, yes…" with that, no longer caring about the others in the room, Gaara soon left, followed by *Temari* and the other boy with make-up, who stopped just for a second, to whisper to the remaining two.

"Your teammate is dead if he crosses Gaara, trust me."

"Kankuro, move or I'll kill you!" and with that, even the boy left in a hurry.

The real Naruto opened his eyes, in wait, out of the forest of death. His snakes were there, and that's where he felt at home, really at home. It was the only place that he considered home.

Kabuto had escaped before the Anbus could actually catch him. Of that, he was a bit happy. The *crow*-masked Anbu that was looming over his shoulder, and was his new *guardian* looked at him with a perplexed look.

"I take it you passed the exam?"

"Obviously, my informants never fail me." A snake slowly slithered away from Naruto's sleeve, going back into the forest.

"The Hokage said no talking snakes."

"Hisses aren't talking. I just have to hiss back." Naruto replied.

"That's…true, I guess."

"…it's going to be so much fun…" Naruto chuckled.

"Remember the Hokage's words…you just have to make sure most Konoha's Nins get to the tower, to make a good impression, the rest doesn't matter," Yamato spoke slowly, shrugging.

"Yes sir," Naruto replied, "I'll do it."

With that, the crow-masked Anbu left the area, leaving Naruto there to wait for Anko, and then for the rest of the Genins to arrive. The boy's chuckle had been something different, it was a clear one, one actually of enjoyment…and it made him shiver.

Just what was the boy going to do in the forest?

**Author's notes.**

**You really thought I'd kill Kushina off like that? …I feel offended. **

**I truly actually feel offended.**

**So much that I wrote over 14K of words, going as far as the second part of the exam for Chuunin rank. Just to prove how much you have offended me. **

**The Couch however, is dead, yeah, woe to the bad author who killed the Couch. **

**Q&A time**

**Guest: That's why I thought people would realize I didn't actually kill her off. I mean, I've got a psycho, with chains, and who can make fierce grins, why should I drop her out of the story? Furthermore she is one of Tsunade's last family members…**

**Lanslet: Chuunins exams are going to be more than a blast. They're going to be an Armageddon. I hope.**

**Tamult: Keep to your gut instincts Tamult! First law of Yandere girls is that they never die the first time! As for jutsus, actually, even the frogs do them, I believe the snakes don't because they don't have hands, so, instead, they learn how to channel chakra affinities through their bodies and grow big. (at least, it would make sense) **

**Guy who reviews: He actually killed Sakura's grandmother, if you read back. He's no more hateful of Katsumi then he is of Sakura, only, you must consider how nice it must be to look straight in the face of someone who had a nice full life of happiness, while you ate shit all the day, and the situation could have been reversed. There's some sort of subtle difference in treatment in that…**

**Arhra: I deliver, but like a devil, I take back. **

**Narutoluver: *ehhhh* he did react to her near murder… *I'm sure half the world is cursing Minato right now* Let's see if you find where Katsumi is.**

**Mysterious blue jay: Update has come**

**Angeldoctor: Madness is such a nice feeling!**

**Limascp: Yugito's not dead…she just had…stuff…to do.**

**Tzeentch: Well…she came back in flesh and bones! **

**Nin: I'm not sure how Naruto would learn the Edo Tensei…**

**Shadowninja123: They divorced beforehand, that's why she was seal-free of anything, but a scroll which would lead her to the safe house, and the chakra suppressing one (which was courtesy of Jiraiya actually)**

**Dragonskyt: …*whistles* you should expect more Yandere now.**

**Ezcap1st: well, bit difficult not to recognize the Raikage. Even the Raikage has no problem recognizing Naruto.**

**Mzr90: Masked man has been mentioned in this chapter. That's the beginning…of the end.**

**General Questions:**

**For the smart guys: **

**You already know what Kushina has inside by now, so don't spoiler it in the comments, for those who don't know. I'll hint about a certain Sora, and that should be all. **

**Kabuto's fate:**

**He had to leave Konoha, (poor guy), so there was no need to make the scene of him handing out info cards around and he couldn't befriend Sasuke.**

**Thus Yoroi is in the Oto-nin squad with Sumire and Karin, and the other guy is in another team…together with *someone else* *hints to the land of grass*.**

**As for Konohamaru Vs Kankuro…scene…I simply didn't do it, I preferred a Three Vs Three battle to show off one of Naruto's summon (Scaly-chan!).**

**Read, Enjoy (I hope), Review (kindly!) and may the force be with you…**

**As the next chapter…**

**Will have cookies.**

**That said, to better explain just *how* Kushina survived:**

**Brain hit-Heart still beating, yin release gets to work holding her heart beating, albeit her brain is *mushy* until Naruto removes the Ninjato, by then, she gets eaten by the couch, and stays *brain dead* until the restoration is nearly completed, by which point, acids in the couch's stomach have started to dissolve her, meaning the Yin release has to take care of *that* and prevent from taking care of the damaged brain. By the time the last drop of yin goes awry, the seal on her, storing *that* activates, as a final resort placed by Minato. *That* being stronger works on both stuff at the same time, and Mommy Yandere emerges more mad than ever.**

**This is *NOT* a deus ex machine, trust me, if tomorrow, Naruto dies, and the rest of the story centers on Sakura, I will not, in any way, take heed of any review claiming how the story has *sucked* because I killed Naruto. I'm writing the story, I'll bring it to the end I envisioned, but that vision can be changed by the characters, and the characters alone. So, I'm stopping you now, reviewer whose about to say "Kushina should be dead, you should have kept her dead. Now the story sucks more." I understand reviews made to point out grammatical mistakes. I understand reviews made to counter certain arguments, or certain points of the plot that don't seem clear. I understand them, and do my best in the next chapters to thoroughly explain how it went, even going as far as having characters explain them, or think them. I like to explain things to the reviewers, and the readers. Just like you have your opinion, I have mine, and that's why I simply ask of you, before writing, "The story sucks hard!" to think if you could write something better. If you can, then do it, instead of writing the review. I don't like some stories of Naruto I read, but I don't hatefully review. I instead write stories I like. Do the same, and, by consequence…**

"**Break the circle of hate and conflict, Dattebayo!"**

***Now that the Naruto reference has been made, I finish the damn Author's notes that has bordered on the 16K line***


	16. Feeling

Sixteenth chapter

The forest of Death was quiet. Not a bird flew through it that day, even the most fearsome of lions knew that, if they dared go anywhere on that specific day, they'd be eaten alive. That day, wasn't the day of the beasts, nor of the plants. It wasn't the day of the buzzing insects or the flying birds. That day, was the day the snakes moved, without signs that could betray their nature as summons, without headbands, without anything but the intelligence that the summoning contract, and the training they had done, could do. They were snakes, they had no hands, no feet, they had no arms or legs, but they had tails, powerful toxins ran through their venomous glands, as their speed on the ground, or slithering on the tree trunks, was something akin the legends. They didn't make noises, silent as the most deadly of assassins, their eyes were clear, focuses, not like those of the beast that worked on a mere instinct base. Their eyes had brains behind them, brains telling them what to do, and how to do it. They had been trained by their Boss's clones, after all, by their fathers and mothers, they were the proudest, and today would be a day to be remembered. Sure, some of them were going to die…but they would be avenged. Their boss was coming back home, and his home was going to make sure he'd be treated like a king.

Atop the tower, at the center of the forest of death, the Kages of the respective villages of Konoha and Kumo stood in wait. The Raikage was stomping the ground, furiously, as he recalled just how many cold shoulders his son had given him in the past week, always a clone, always a puff of smoke, without a word, only with dead eyes. He had been placed under a powerful Genjutsu, certainly, but there was nothing he could do, the alliance was made, it held benefits, but A…A didn't want to sacrifice his son's happiness for the benefits of trade. What good did money do, if you sent your kid to death?

He was furious, furthermore, because he had been blinded by the so false words of the Fourth Hokage, who had conned him into thinking he would be doing the brat a favor, by sending him for some time with his real family. He had been told he'd be treated with regards, by his family, and the damn bastard had obviously played a dirty hand. Even if Naruto was under a Genjutsu, or even if he wasn't, there was nothing A could do. His son didn't even have his Kumo headband on, and that was the thing he was more proud of! He had the Konoha one now, on his forehead. He had changed clothing to black and red, the colors of death and blood. Something was wrong, but mostly, something was still wrong. The Nibi Jinchuuriki had to be calmed down by B of all people, as she nearly transformed out of pure anger, it had taken B five slaps to make her calm down, and Yugito, usually, was the most calm and collected person among anyone A had met before.

The fourth, instead, didn't even seem to care, in the slightest, as he spoke with the examiners for the Chuunin's exams, as he gave a dismissing wave to some other people, and as he simply stood watching from the window. A was starting to think that he could, probably, murder the Hokage right there. Grab him by surprise. Problem was that, while Iwa might actually thank him for that, they'd thank him while declaring war on him for having broken a treaty signed in the land of Iron. They were just that type of opportunistic bastards.

"Seems they have all arrived at the front gates," Minato said, with a polite, but neutral, tone, "both your Kumo teams have gotten to the second part already," he added.

"Obviously," A snorted back at the man, "We train our Genins hard to make them the best," _we don't break their minds when they're five you damn bastard._

"Good, we do that too."

"Hokage-sama, the forest is too quiet," Hayate Gekko, one who would later on be the examiner once the teams reached the tower, if some teams did reach the tower, spoke slowly, within a coughing fit and another, "even Genma-san says the same, it's strange."

"There's nothing to worry about, Gekko-san, the forest of Death has nothing uncommon in it from when I did the exams here, and from when any other chuunin-would-be did," the Hokage replied slowly, his eyes darting through the forest, it was, indeed, quiet.

"If you say so, Hokage-sama, I'll report the all clear to the gates." The training ground forty-four, called the Forest of death, had as many gates as the number it bore, furthermore, it stretched for quite a bit of land, taking a grand total of an entire day to reach the central tower, no matter from which gate one started. It would take some time to position all the Genins at the same time, before the gates would open.

As Gekko dispersed in a twirling of leaves, the Raikage grunted.

"I take it the forest being quiet is a bad omen," A thought out loud, "after all, even on the highest peaks of Kumogakure, if the winds stop hollowing, then one must seek refuge from the thunderstorms."

"Is that some sort of metaphor? Coming from you?" Minato turned around vaguely surprised, A usually was a man of fists and actions, not of words.

"Yes," A said, closing his mouth for a while, until Minato raised a puzzled eyebrow, expecting an explanation of the metaphor, which A, rolling his eyes, muttered few moments later, "It means that the quieter it is and the more things are smooth…the more terrible things will be when it will be disrupted."

Below them, and far from them, in front of Gate number one, Naruto stood waiting, staring in front of him with a bored look.

"I can sense you," He muttered, to no-one in particular. He didn't actually hope to receive a reply, mind you. Being however clearly under surveillance, it would stupid not to, he knew that saying this sentence, mostly, resulted in a really perplexed Anbu the following day, or a small gasp that gave the position away. It was stupid for highly trained ninjas to do that, but it was because they expected a Genin to be weak. They expected Him to be weak, _Him_.

**One day, someone completely at random is going to hear you. That day, you will find yourself in deep hell because you blew up the hiding place of a really high ranking enemy ninja, who will have no choice but killing you, leaving your poor widow and your three children all alone…**

_Listen: I understand you're trying to lighten the mood, but really? I'm going to have to battle half the Genins team in the forest, and I don't want to let my mind wander off._

"I said, I sensed you," Naruto muttered once more, to the wind, "why don't you come out? Afraid?"

He actually got a chuckle. Well that was a first. It actually worked.

**There you go, now it's the widow and three children part that's missing. **

_Oh shut up._

"I didn't think someone would sense me," one of the grass country ninja came out, from behind a stone, with a very wide trimmed straw hat, and staring with a mixture of curiosity, and interest, at the boy.

"I didn't," Naruto replied, shrugging, as the grass ninja was taken aback by that statement.

"If you didn't…how could you?" the grass ninja was actually curious about that, the boy was interesting: he reeked of blood and snakes, two things he too enjoyed.

"If I say *I can sense you* once," Naruto spoke, raising his right hand index in the *one* position, "a hidden shinobi wouldn't believe it, if I repeat the statement, again," raising his middle finger in the *two* position, "someone is bound to pop up, because he now *believes* I know where he is."

The grass Nin actually laughed at that, _Kabuto had told me about the boy's potential, and his cunningness, so he'd be *another me* huh? Let's see it in the forest then…between him and Sasuke, who I will mark._

"So interesting," the grass ninja muttered, "did you leave your team behind?"

"That I did," Naruto replied, with a shrug, "they can handle _walking_ till here, I hope."

"Let me ask you something…by the spiral on his clothes, are you…" the grass Nin stopped his sentence in mid-air, as the boy, silently, had his eyes turn a fiery red crimson.

"**What I am, and what I wish to be are two different things**," his voice growled, "**and I do not like speaking about it.**"

The grass ninja narrowed his eyes, before shrugging the murderous glare off, Kabuto had told him about the Kyuubi in the boy, but he had underestimated its power, it was just *any* demon that had been sealed inside the boy, it was *the* demon, the nine-tails. Naruto could be marked, but he would never become *his* body. He needed the Uchiha, and his sharingan. Still, he needed to act a bit scared, now.

"I…I see, I will not ask anything more then," as he slowly faked shivering, he moved back, but he could feel the boy's gaze on him, as he slowly rejoined the two *grass* Nins, who had reached them in the meantime.

"So, how is the boy?" the second of the grass nins, one with circled black glasses, the grass country's headband protector on, and a blocky face, spoke, in a humble manner, to the Genin with the wide trimmed straw hat.

"He is…mature, yet…boiling, without purpose he's…lost."

"I understand," the *grass* Nin spoke again, nodding.

Naruto waited, where he was, slowly muttering curses to himself for having actually reeled in something with his stupid phrase.

**So you realize it's stupid.**

_It works: I'm going to jolt it down on my upcoming book._

**Book?**

_I spend hours staying with *Kaa-san*, if I don't take my mind off by writing, I'm going to die of boredom._

**Your Taijutsu is getting a bit creaky.**

_*Kaa-san* thinks clones should take all the hits. You realize it doesn't help making or maintaining body mass._

**You did manage to keep your weights though.**

_I had to half them!_

Mitarashi Anko arrived, at a leisurely pace, expecting to be the first, with the head start she had. Instead, Naruto, her ray of sunshine in a dark and otherwise boring life, stood there, looking at her with a small, but awry, smile, as on the other hand the grass Nins had arrived with speed, surpassing even hers. Anko mentally cursed herself: she could have arrived sooner, and she could have spent some time speaking with the boy, at least a *Hi Brat!* or something like that. Instead, as Gekko and Genma arrived to help her sort out the *admission* modules into the forest, something that Naruto didn't need, of that she was sure, she was surprised when Naruto, slowly grabbing his own admission paper, bit on his thumb, letting a blood line trace over his name, before handing it back to her, directly, while winking.

"That's…" Anko was about to say *That's not how you write your name on an admission paper boy!* when she looked at the blood line, that actually formed his name, _Naruto Uzumaki, _and then revealed a small green jaded snake earring, that had *puffed* into existence straight at the end of the boy's name, and had thus slowly ended, in one clean move, into the palm of her hand.

"Well then, good luck," with that, Anko stashed the paper together with that of the grass Nins, who, since being the first completed group, was brought to the farthest away gate.

Slowly, the teams started to fill in.

Shinkansen was actually the first to come through, patiently waiting for his team, while trying to figure out why Naruto was giving him the cold shoulder, by outright giving him his back, and staring, with quite a bit of concentration, at the rock boulder that somehow adorned that part of the landscape.

He knew it was a clone, even without having to be so direct about it. He knew because no matter how fast he could be, with his special release, the boy was more cunning. He'd probably already had the clone in place since having signed the admission paper, trying anything would have the clone puff away.

Mogura came next, digging his way through the soil, and silently staring in the direction of Naruto, without saying a word. He felt the vibrations on the air, on the grounds, he couldn't see more than hazy figures, but he could feel hearts beating harder, or slower, he could feel teeth going against lips till blood was drawn, he realized Naruto wasn't doing this because he liked to, he knew that was the real one, but that he couldn't speak about it. Mogura slowly signed his own paper, silently averting his gaze from the blond's back.

It took a moment for Hayari to arrive, still hesitant, but at least not too much. She had done her best to wash all makeup from her face, and that…that had made her once more Miss Plain. It was the reason she was a ninja. They had called it some sort of special ability, or maybe even a hidden bloodline. Without fawning, or speaking, without being an obnoxious girl, she disappeared into the background, like she wasn't there to begin with. That had hurt when she had been young, nobody played with her, sometime her parents even forgot about her, however, when she had finally managed to get noticed, she had been set on the course for being a shinobi, if only because her skill, in the line of work, was priceless. She stared at the back of the boy, who acted nothing more than like a prude, after just a day, and she, thus, ignored him, signing on her own admission paper, then, they too departed, for the second farthest gate.

The next to arrive was Kiba's team: the Inuzuka was actually carrying both Shino and Hinata on his back, dashing till the arrival with a wide grin on his face.

"Boss!" Kiba said, happily, waving at the boy who turned around, to reveal a smiling grin on him.

"Kiba, how're you doing?" Naruto queried, as he smiled softly to Akamaru, who seemed to be slightly whining, as there was no black snake to bark to that day.

"We're going to roll! You're a stealer of hearts Boss: you even got that blue hair oto-chick to come speak to you!"

"Naruto?" Shino queried, he didn't salute Naruto by saying his name, he queried, because, differently from Kiba who was as thick as a log, and Hinata, who was afraid of Naruto, for the power he had shown in defeating Kiba, and for *who* he had hung around with, he could stare straight into the face of his friend, and see the worry in his eyes. Naruto showed worry only when something was really bad but, more than that, he showed worry when others he deemed friends were concerned.

Naruto was worried about them, for some reason Shino couldn't come up with. He wasn't worried about fighting them, they wouldn't, but he was worried about something.

He gently made a fake grin, one that Shino knew far too well, one that he did on those times when the shopkeepers would throw him out from stores that would, instead, even accept the likes of Shino. He always made that grin, saying that *It's going to be fine! I'll wait outside!* it was that grin, that made Shino tense when Naruto actually patted him on the left shoulder, as he felt something slowly slither inside his coat, something small, but still something. He raised an eyebrow, and, he heard only three words, coming from Naruto's mouth.

"Good luck charm." That was enough for Shino to nod, it was probably something that would help them, had they any need, that was probably why Naruto had been awry, and why he hadn't given it to Kiba. The Inuzuka was prideful, and would have refused. Shino was more cool-headed, and, no matter *what* it was, he would still find a way to use it.

"Thanks." Shino muttered back, as Kiba stared puzzled at the exchange between the two. His boss had just patted Shino's shoulder, was that a good luck charm? He'd be damned if he admitted he wanted one too.

"Good luck charm to you too Kiba!" Naruto chuckled, shaking his head as the Inuzuka only missed a tail, to actually *waggle* his need to be *good luck charmed*, and then, the team was off, and Naruto stood in wait once more.

The next team to arrive was of Yagura? Sasuke? Sakura? None of them seemed some sort of *leader* of the team, but they arrived, the Uchiha scowling in first line, while the boy, next to him, seemed to have been wearing weights too, but had removed them, as he had trouble keeping the same pace as the other two. Sakura instead stood hesitantly, wearing a long sleeved green robe that even had a hood, to cover her face. It was above her normal clothes, so…did the girl actually think ahead, preparing something mimetic for the terrain? She actually looked into Naruto's eyes and there was some sort of silent talk, in that moment, something quite short, a sort of…

"_Are you fine?"_

"_All's fine."_

Sakura slowly nodded, she had heard the news of Naruto *transferring* into the Uzumaki's mansion, next to that *woman* who had tried to kill her, just to be *killed* by Naruto. Naruto had paid the price for saving her, of that, Sakura was sure. The way the woman had spoken, made it clear that she had stopped hunting her only because he was there, her silent guardian, his dark blue eyes, his awry smile, his hair cut short once more. Just what atrocious tortures did the boy have to be subjected to, in that house? Still, she could do nothing but smile awkwardly at the blond boy, who simply nodded back.

"Sakura, move it," Sasuke scowled the pink haired Kunoichi, she was being too slow, they didn't have time to waste! The sooner they were chuunins, the sooner they would go on higher level missions, becoming stronger and stronger until he could take on the path of the avenger. Sakura's gaze turned hard on her teammate's words, before signing, and turning to leave.

"You dropped this," Naruto spoke moving slowly towards Sakura, who stared perplexed as the boy left in her hand what looked like a small, bright green, snake-form earing, it was…kind of cute, actually, "it matches with your eyes," Naruto added slowly, before standing aside, and turning his back on her. How did he know she had her ear lobes pierced? Obviously he didn't know. He couldn't know. Still, she couldn't help but blush, as she actually placed the earring on her right ear. It even felt warm, at the touch, she giggled, as she moved alongside the rest of her teammates, probably Naruto had been nervous about giving her a gift, and had thus kept it in his hand till she had arrived.

"Finished couple talking," Sasuke grunted, just to be interrupted by Yagura.

"Sasuke-kun, you should stop acting like a damn prick: It's not youthful," Naruto actually heard those words, as they left, towards their own gate. He couldn't help but chuckle at that.

That's when the next team arrived, and speaking of youthful teams…

It arrived in a cloud of dust, with a bright green shinobi holding on his back both of his teammates, like Kiba had done, only Kiba had gone on all fours, while this shinobi, with a bright green spandex suit, and bright orange arms and legs warmers, stood on his two feet, stopping suddenly in front of Naruto.

As his two teammates, a girl with a pink dress and two hair-buns on the head, and a clearly angry Hyuga, descended from his back throwing curses.

"You damn idiot! We could have been here firsts! You had to go around Konoha twice huh! What's going through that stupid head of your!" as the girl screeched to Rock Lee, the bushy browned boy dismissed her with an open palm. He had something else to do.

Naruto stared at Lee.

Lee stared at Naruto.

Neji's face suddenly paled, as too did Tenten's, when they both realized what was about to happen.

"This is a nightmare…" The Hyuga muttered, as slowly, but surely, in slow-motion, the two boys started raising their right arm into the sky, yelling, at the top of their lungs.

"YOSH!" as a strange music filled the air, maybe a powerful Genjutsu that required those precise movements to activate, the two boys completed their moves, "LET THE FIRE OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHTLY ON US TODAY!" and with that, they both pointed at the horizon, waves crashing on the small sandy isle they were on, their eyes alit with pure red flames, before turning to each other.

"YOSH! Youthful Naruto-kun!"

"YOSH! Youthful Lee-kun!"

"YOSH! YOSH!" Tenten grabbed one of her kunais, and looked at Neji, who shook his head.

"It is not a Genjutsu," the Hyuga branch clan member muttered, "It is reality: someone like Lee and Gai-san exists elsewhere."

"I wanted to kill them actually," Tenten said, with a slightly teasing tone, as both Lee and Naruto paled hugging together, their faces gone white.

"That is a most un-youthful thing to do!" as they both said that, before detaching themselves, Naruto handed over to Lee what looked like a green scaled belt.

"Lee-kun! Take this!" He said, coughing, while slightly red, as he gave the belt to Lee who actually, grabbed it, feeling its weight.

"Naruto-kun! Is this what I think it is!" Lee's eyes had the fire of youth burn ever more brightly, in that moment.

"It is! It's a waist weight!" As Naruto said that, his right thumb up, Lee started to shed tears of joy.

"Naruto-kun!"

"Lee-kun!"

"STOP IT YOU TWO!" Anko actually screamed. She mentally noted to drop a hundred and more snakes into Gai's house, possibly while pointing out which kids he should *not* touch, especially a kid which would be her ticket out of Hag-hood, who was also growing out to be a fine man, soon.

"You all signed? Then get to your damn gate, NOW!" as Anko screeched, Lee made a military salute, before dashing off, together with Neji and Tenten.

Naruto, after a moment, chuckled, earning himself a scornful, but playful, look from Anko, who stuck out her tongue for a moment, before going back in waiting the other teams.

Naruto shook his head, as he got back to rest against the boulder, and soon, another team came through.

The Suna Nins were nervous. They obviously weren't the only Genin teams of Suna Nins to participate, obviously, but they were those with the mad red-haired guy who held the one tailed raccoon, the Shukaku.

Worst, he was actually mad, those weren't rumors, so, when Gaara actually saw the man who had belittled him, his blood slowly started to boil.

That, that made his brother Kankuro shiver just slightly. They felt the killing intent radiating from Gaara, who knew nothing but death and blood as a mean to prove that he existed, and there, straight in front of him, was someone strong. Kankuro had no chance of stopping Gaara, because, somewhere, that was still his younger brother, but to him, in his eyes that saw nothing but blood and death, he was just someone who happened to have the same mother as him, and that was all. Temari thought the same thing. Sure, the boy looked kind of cute, and maybe, one day, he'd turn out hot, but till then, he had made Gaara mad, so he was clearly going to die.

"Keep your sand in the gourd, before you get disqualified," Naruto muttered, staring straight into Gaara's eyes. Gaara knew that people either stared at him with disgust, or fear, and when they didn't, it was just because they had yet to know who he really was, but the man's cold gaze, he was a man, not a boy, Gaara knew, he knew by the blood spilled who was a man and who a boy among all the brats around him, he knew that the man in front of him, the blond haired man, knew blood. That was more than enough to make him worthy, but his stare, his eyes…those made him more than worthy, they made him worthy of being _listened to._ An honor Gaara reserved to nearly no-one, except the strong ones he felt were strong, and not boasting.

"I wish to fight you," Gaara spoke, "I want to fight you."

"You'll get your wish…" Naruto replied, taking a thoughtful position, "The exam is divided in two parts," he explained, earning himself a surprised stare from both Temari and Kankuro, as Gaara was _listening_ to the boy! He was listening, not outright trying to kill him! Even the sand had gone back into the gourd, and that, that was something that very few people could be able to do.

"This is the first part, while the second part, is in a month, and is a tournament no-moves barred, to show off in front of the Daimyos' trusted people and the Kages," Naruto couldn't care anything about the court officers, or the likes, but the red-haired boy, Gaara, was listening, so, he pressed on, "we will fight there. If you can survive the forest of Death, and whatever may happen next…I'll wait for you."

"You sound certain you won't be defeated in here," Temari snorted, at the boy's arrogance.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, before starting to chuckle, but what made Kankuro, and then Temari, pale, instead of being angry even more, was that even Gaara was, strangely, making a small grin.

"Shut up or I'll kill you, Temari, can't you see his strength? I will wait for that moment…with trepidation," with those final words, and having signed, together with his *relatives* the papers, they delivered them to the assigned Jounin, and headed off to their gate. Temari just gave the boy a small peak, before turning to the road in front of her. Gaara had smiled, a little…that never meant well.

There actually were two Oto-nins groups, who arrived at the same time. The familiar blue-haired girl actually smiled, and waved, at Naruto, who, refraining from scowling, shook his head at her sight, why was she being so much…expansive?

"Naruto-kun!" the girl, Sumire, exclaimed, as she neared the boy, who stared at her without saying a word, she certainly wasn't disturbing another Genin only for small talk...was she?

"I wanted to ask you…since you're from Konoha and I'm from Oto, if you could give us some pointers also for the forest, please…" as she made those puppy-eyes, Naruto's gaze narrowed, before turning thoughtful for a moment. Why not? Even better, why not send them in the den of the lions?

"Fine to me…just make your way to the water sources at dusk, never at noon or in the morning, because the fiercest predators go in that hour, a relative safe place is made of the caves in the north east area, they are usually covered with poison Ivy, so just be careful while moving through it…and don't harm a single snake in the forest," Naruto said the light part with a growling tone, making the girl take a step back, under the pressure, "if a single snake will be harmed, trust me, there is a guardian in the forest, and he will know, and he will come for your team…some says he's a stricken with madness Anbu who has made of the forest his refuge…whatever happens, don't cross him, the snakes are his friends."

Karin stared at the boy for a moment, before pouting.

"You're making fun of her, I can feel it…you bastard!"

Naruto chuckled, before turning his gaze to Karin.

"Truth or lie, we live in shadows, asking questions to me is a bit of a stupid thing, especially if you hope on a truthful answer. Remember that you're a ninja, before being a kid." Karin growled slightly, as she pulled Sumire with her, albeit the blue haired girl was making a sad face, while going back to their teammate, and then departing to their own gate, as the other Oto squad did a bit later.

Naruto shrugged, turning to stare at the boulder, as this time, he actually substituted with a Bunshin. He even felt sorry for the Kage Bunshin, but there was no other choice. He couldn't actually count on Shoko controlling herself from bashing him.

The group to arrive was the second group of Genins from Kumo, the one who had Naruto among their classmates, and who, at the cold shoulder, had been the most surprised. The boy that had been a bit shy in their class in the beginning, that didn't even know what recess was, or the numbers less than fifty, had then become one of their friends, and yet, he stood there now, staring at the boulder, clearly ignoring them.

Yugoro said nothing, fate was cruel, too cruel, sometimes, and he could do nothing but silently watch the back of Naruto, who clearly had his arms crossed. He silently signed, and waited.

Saya, the self-called *Lady of Genjutsus*, stared straight at Naruto's skull, trying to decide, mentally, if throwing a senbon needle through his skull would be lady-like, or unlady-like, and wherever it would be a smart thing to do, or not. She shook her head: no, it would be unladylike, clearly. She signed, and waited for Shoko.

Shoko, having grabbed her retractable metal staff, slowly moved close to Naruto, as Anko, however, raised an eyebrow.

"If she hits him, she gets disqualified," Anko said, pointing at the scene, but both Saya and Yugoro shrugged. None of the two had the strength, even combined, to stop the *Monkey of Kumo* even if they wanted to.

Shoko stopped, breathing hardly: she was a tomboyish girl who had done a great deal of stupid things in her life. She had accept Yugoro's first advances, she had done with thick glasses most of her life, hitting the boy into finally admitting his love for her, she had blushed like a girl and she had hit like a boy, and now, now she just wanted to know why one of her friends, one her best friends with whom they used to go around Kumo, to talk, and play and prank people, a kind-hearted boy, was ignoring her, completely. She felt betrayed. What reason could he have? What reasons? As she shook her head, slowly letting the staff retract, and moving back to her team, her shoulders slumped as they set off to their gates. She whispered to him only one word, before leaving, and that was all.

Naruto was puzzled, as to why the Bunshin wasn't dispersing, as to why he didn't want to disperse yet. Then he realized the Bunshin was actually doing his best not to cry. Nodding to himself, he dispersed the clone, and took in the word, and the feelings.

"_Betrayer"_ it hurt, it hurt because he was doing this to be with them, in three years, it hurt him like crazy, but he had no choice. He had no choice…he had made a mistake, and now, now he had to pay it back. It was for their own good, why couldn't they understand it?

He slowly made his way back to the boulder, from his hiding place. Thankfully the Kumo ninja had gone, so now all that remained where a couple of nameless Suna Nins, a squad of Konoha's Genins that seemed more green than the patch of grass they walked on, one from Amegakure actually, and then, the nearly last group, the one of Shikamaru.

"So…troublesome," Shikamaru had hoped to be the last team arriving, so they would go through the first gate, but obviously, Naruto, had beaten him to it, he didn't know how, Yakumo and Sai had gotten moving in the direction of the forest far before them, yet he had a feeling Naruto was waiting for him.

"Shika! Can't you stop saying that phrase? I'm trying to put up some make-up for Sasuke-kun!" the blond girl who spoke, with blue eyes, was Ino Yamanaka, Naruto winced, knowing full well who her father was, what his job was, and what *beautiful* dreams he had when remembering him.

"Chomp…chomp…like you'd meet him in the forest," Chouji spoke, slowly eating chips, like they were oxygen without whom he'd be dead, or worst, burning calories.

"Shikamaru," Naruto said, standing straight in front of the Nara, who sighed.

"What is it, Naruto?"

"Here, I'm sure there's no need to tell you about it," with that, Naruto dropped a bright green snake-like earing into the Nara's hand, making the boy narrow his eyes while looking at it.

"How nice! Do you have one more! Maybe another, they could work in pairs!" Ino actually stared with sparks at the small snake-earing, as Shikamaru, instead, realized it.

"I knew you trained in the forest of Death…this is something to mark us as friends to the beasts in there, right?" Naruto, with a small smile, nodded, as Ino was instead outright ignored, even when she went full pout out to try and get the boy to give her the earring.

"Try not to kill my snakes, Shika. They won't attack you with that on, and they'll need just a look or a sniff of your team to memorize them, so…keep it near." Shikamaru nodded, it was a drag, but it was better than running from lions or giant snakes.

"Well, just one thing Naruto…where is your team?" Naruto chuckled, before saying.

"You can come out now!" the boulder, actually, phased out of existence, as Yakumo emerged with Sai next to her, both looking unfazed, albeit a bit sweaty, from having been in a hollow rock for a good while.

"…smart," Shikamaru muttered, admitting defeat as he begrudgingly took off with his team, after having signed, towards his gate.

Then, finally, it was Naruto's turn with his group.

Yakumo bit her lips, she had done as Naruto had told her, and now they knew they were going to be safe, she had her very own bright-green snake earing on, and even Sai had a green scaled belt on his waist. The forest of Death was Naruto's playground, and they had taken a lot of missions in it to catch Tora the cat, after his new fondness of the place.

Now, it was time to make all her hard work come to end.

As they entered the metallic cube that truth be told was the gate towards the inner area, the Chuunin assigned handed over a scroll to them, a dark brown scroll, and, within minutes, a voice clicked in from the loudspeakers in the corner of the room.

"Well then! Here is your adorable snake mistress, Anko-chan, speaking to you today in bright windy Konohagakure! Out of you lot, I expect half to reach the tower at the center, or even less! Purpose of this section, is to catch the opposite scroll, one is the earth scroll, and is brown, while the other is the sky scroll, and it's white, you know what white is, right? Once you got both, you need to open them, together, inside the base of the tower, do that before and you'll be disqualified! All the team must be together to do so, so, all three teammates must reach the end! You have four days! And, whatever happens, don't you dare harm one of my snakes! They are just misunderstood creatures that…" the voice was cut off, as another one, a male one, took word.

"This is the Fourth Hokage that is speaking: I hope that you all are ready to fight, but mostly, I hope that you can understand the true meaning behind the Will of Fire that so much…" the speaker was once again cut off, until it turned into the coarser one of the Raikage, who simply yelled, nearly deafening everyone.

"KUMO Ninjas! Fight on! Son! Three years and I'm hitting you with a lariat! So be prepared to…" the voice was cut off again, to finally return to that of Anko, but not before Naruto had actually shown a hint of a smile, in hearing his father's voice, a smile that slowly faded, leaving place to his usual emotionless face.

"And you can begin the test!" with those final words, the door opened in front of them, to make them head off, into the forest of Death.

*Naruto's group*

"Naruto-kun? You're leading us, right?" Yakumo queried, staring all around her, as snakes seemed to be slithering at the side of the trees, following them, kind of like a sort of honor guard, towards someplace.

"Naruto-kun, would you explain the plan?" Sai queried, actually perplexed as to why there were snakes jumping onto Naruto's shoulders and disappearing into his jacket, before emerging from the other side, and dashing away, doing nothing more than a couple of hisses every now and then.

"First off, we head straight for the tower's base," Naruto said, jumping on a tree, while the Ivies retracted to avoid touching him, "then, we wait and we provide support to those in need…I want to see all of Konoha's nins reach safely into the tower…I love Konoha so much after all!" as he said that with a wide grin and smile, Sai mentally jolted down how retarded Naruto's smile was.

"I…See! Right! We have to help each other, so you listened to my words before Naruto-kun, right? Good!" Yakumo said to herself, practically, as they dashed off on the trees, feeling like they were taking a walk in the park. The forest knew not to stop the boy that was dashing towards the tower, it knew who he was, what he could do, and the forest…the forest was no fool to cross its master when his mood was as dark as the night.

*Sakura's group*

They had been walking, for hours. Hours to no end, until, in the end, they had stopped, panting heavily, all except Yagura, who seemed as fresh as a rose during a nice spring day, a thing which made Sakura slightly angry…at herself.

She should have trained more, she knew that. She should have been more serious from the start, instead, right now, they were in the middle of nowhere, and they were resting, without knowing where a water source was, or where food could be. All they knew was that they were there, near a hollow giant tree, that seemed so familiar and yet it couldn't be.

It was as she slowly touched her earing that Sasuke, finally, snapped.

"What does that Dobe have that I don't!" he exclaimed, as Yaguro, not understanding, looked back and forth from Sasuke to Sakura, and vice-versa.

"What are you talking about, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura queried, perplexed, could it be? Was…Sasuke…jealous? Normally, she would have been happy about it, Sasuke had been her crush, her dream, her love, but right now…what was Sasuke to her? A guy who didn't care wherever she lived or died, wherever she got home safely or stayed drenched in the water, a guy who snapped rudely at other's tries to better them, like Yaguro's harsh working routine, to which he simply scowled, he was a prick, an ass, he was not, in any way, a nice person. He wasn't *Dark* he was broody. He wasn't *Cold* he was Emo. Naruto, at least, was warm, maybe not completely warm, no, but more lukewarm than Sasuke would ever be, and he was in trouble because of her. Yet he hadn't given her any blame, and had taken it all. He had saved _her _asking for nothing in return, wanting nothing. He had explained to them what it meant to be a team, and Sasuke…Sasuke had forgotten that, blinded by envy. He was…Sasuke was a Kid, a kid who was Jealous when other's successes got in the way of his, and it had taken Naruto, the ninja from Kumo, to realize that. Ino could keep Sasuke, for all that she cared.

"You've been touching that damn earring for a good hour, that's what," Sasuke spout out, "he's an enemy now, and you play couple with him…shouldn't you be ashamed?"

Sakura frowned, before her face contorted in anger.

"Ashamed? Ashamed of what? Of liking a gift, because I'm still a girl? It's a nice earring, it's a nice gift, and Naruto's a nice person! Something you will never be because you're just too taken on your *avenger*," raising her fingers to point that out, "path, to figure that out!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, at Sakura's words, as he scowled back.

"What do you know of losing your family, huh? Of seeing all of them killed in front of you!"

"Nothing!" Sakura yelled back, "but Naruto's one of the last member of his clan too, and he doesn't go around moping or being proud of it! He hates being called by his surname, because he doesn't want to be related to that! HE wants to be known for what he truly is, and not for what his clan was, Naruto is Naruto, and you are an Emo!"

"Emo?" Sasuke queried, perplexed, and a bit taken aback by Sakura's bite.

"Yes, Emo! You cut your wrists in the bathroom while crying your misery, don't you!" Sasuke's eyes bulged, as he growled.

"Don't you dare…"  
"Silence, you two," Yaguro muttered, "You're making so much noise it's going to attract attention."

"Yeah…a pity they already did that," Yaguro jumped to the side, as the voice from behind him belonged to a wide-trimmed straw hat ninja, who smirked at the sight of the free fresh Genins, who he was so going to swallow whole.

*Anko's side*

Somewhere, deep within the tower, Anko felt a jolt of slight pain coming from her shoulder, and she tensed, narrowing her eyes.

"Oh no…no," she muttered, standing up, and dashing towards the tower's exit.

"No, no," she added, nearly shaking as she started to dash, to where the seal was bringing her, by slightly pulsing, "not you…not here…don't you dare here." Thoughts drifted into her mind, thoughts about fake smiles, fake caring words, trust, mistrust, experiments, blood and death.

She had to find him first and she had to finish him, no matter the cost. She had gotten her joy already: it wouldn't matter if she were to die afterwards. The last years of her life had been happy, for the most part, with that small blond boy always ready to make her smile, and go through that shit called life together with her. Well, he probably wouldn't have any more of Anko-chan, but he was a strong boy, strong soul, he'd survive that. She was just Konoha's snake mistress, and she was going off to face against an S-class wanted criminal, her former sensei, taught by the third himself, she was, after all, going to her death, alone. She didn't want anyone else in this.

It was her battle. Her past, that came back to haunt her that day. So, when she arrived, after half an hour, she thought she was prepared to fight and die against Orochimaru. She wasn't.

Orochimaru stood in the clearing, having discarded his mask of grass Nin, his mask made of the real flesh and blood of the clearly now dead ex-grass Nin. Not only was he there, standing in front of one really scared Kunoichi, but he was there while, on the ground near him, the Uchiha stood holding tightly his right shoulder, wincing in pain, as on the ground, against a tree, stood the fainted, or maybe even dead, body of Yaguro.

"Sen'eijashu!" Anko wasted no time, as from her sleeves, snakes darted forward, Ninjatos and kunais in their mouth, aiming at the man who, with a smirk, jumped back, dashing up a tree's trunk, while holding the damn Uchiha brat by the leg, Anko wasn't actually caring if she caught the brat in the crossfire, the council was sure to understand…like hell it would, but she ignored it. First she had to deal with Orochimaru; the council would come later, if she survived.

"My! My ex-student! What a pleasure to see you here, kukuku," the snake sannin laughed, as he left the Uchiha on one of the thickest branches of the trees of the forest of death, staring off at Anko, who wasted no time throwing a volley of Kunais at her former sensei, that were all easily dodged by a nimbleness of the snake sannin that not even a limbo dancer would have been able to display.

"Is this your way of meeting me, Anko-chan?" as the snake sannin smirked, Anko smiled.

"No, but this is! Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu!" as the purple haired Kunoichi let the fire go across the nearly invisible cords, that had been tied to the back of the Kunai, the fire flame sprouted forward, aiming straight at Orochimaru, who chuckled taking the hit head on. Anko looked with her eyes narrowed, as Orochimaru revealed himself to be nothing more than a Doton Kage Bunshin, a clone made of mud, that cracked and dispersed, while Anko, where she was, suddenly felt a jolting and blinding pain, so strong that she had to get on her knees, while her former sensei loomed in front of her, having appeared straight through the thick branch surface, like it was nothing more than water to him.

"Well…time to finish this, Anko-chan…a failure will always be a failure, after all." As Orochimaru said that, opening his jaw to reveal Kusanagi, his blade, Anko smirked, well, more in shit than now…if only she wasn't feeling her whole body scorching under the pain, if only…

The next moment, she closed her eyes, readying herself for the blade.

It was a moment. She felt the blade coming. She was sure she did, and then, she felt it hit, tear through flesh and bone. Only…it didn't hit her. Something warm fell on her face. Something she knew by the texture, without even opening her eyes. It was blood.

Blood that belonged to someone, but to who did it belong? The Kunoichi, Sakura Haruno, down below, had stared at the quickly paced battle, and then, then she had stared in shock at the sudden appearance of one ninja. One dressed in black and red, who had taken, front on…the blade.

"NARUTO!" when Sakura yelled that, Anko opened her eyes, in utter shock.

The blade was mere inches away from her face, having passed straight through the blond's body, and having carved itself deeply into the branch under her. He had managed to twist it while taking it in, to avoid her actually taking it. His hands were covered in blood, as blood was spewing out of his mouth.

"Are…you alright…Oneechan?" Naruto muttered, as he stared at the pale skinned man in front of him, with a look of pure hatred.

_So much for bringing him to my side…but how did he get here? Hiraishin? Could the fourth have taught him that? No, it's impossible! _Orochimaru was perplexed, and intrigued, why not toy some more with his former pupil, by toying also with her…*Otouto*? Kabuto had told him all about it, so he was now going to enjoy this.

"Na…Naruto! What the hell are you doing!" as the Kusanagi's blade retracted, Anko threw through the force of desperation, Naruto behind her, throwing senbon needles on the front, that pierced through Orochimaru's body, but didn't even make him bleed, as she didn't have much strength left, the pain coursing through her body was more than enough to make her sight a bit hazy.

"Senbon needles? Really, Anko-chan?" Orochimaru laughed, as he bit his right thumb, making the appropriate signs, something that made Anko's eyes bulge, he wasn't going to…

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" the next moment, a giant snake appeared twirling around the tree branch, eyeing with an hungry stare at both Anko and Naruto, who was holding his stomach, where he had received the wound.

"I'm going to push you aside, Anko-chan, and let you stare how I eat your…*Otouto*, kukuku" as Orochimaru grinned fiercely, his right arm elongated, like if bones didn't matter, and Anko, too weak from the sharp pain to do much, was thrown against the tree's trunk, as Naruto stared at Orochimaru with anger in his eyes.

"Eat him," Orochimaru hissed to the snake, who, without saying it twice, pounced at the boy, his fangs open, and swallowing him whole. Anko looked in front of her, for a moment, not wanting to register what had just happened. The boy that called her Oneechan was dead. The boy that, through thick and thin, had given her light was dead. The boy that had slept on her lap, that had pushed himself hard, all that training, sacrifices, all that everything…was dead. Gone. She couldn't even come up with tears. It was all too stupid to be true. So she laughed, she simply laughed.

"Have you lost it, Anko-chan?" Orochimaru queried, grinning, well, a broken toy was still a toy, for a while.

"You have no idea, what hell you're going through…" she replied, chuckling.

"I am growing…"

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu! Slithery-kun!" Orochimaru's eyes bulged, as he jumped away from the snake *he* had summoned, that literally exploded, or better yet *shed* skin, to become something else, something bigger.

"That's…" _impossible…Snake summons are…_

A snake stood there, on the branch, on top of which stood a really angry looking Naruto, whose ebbs of red chakra flew into his wounds, closing them up like they never were there to begin with. His red eyes stared at Orochimaru, who was now facing the exact same situation as before…only reversed.

"Sen'eijashu!" as both of Naruto's forearms expelled snakes, that aimed forward with Ninjatos in their mouth, Slithery-kun pounced forward, aiming precisely at where Orochimaru had jumped, to avoid the blades, before swiping his tail straight against the S-rank nin, who had been in mid-air, and plunging him on the ground, before dashing downwards, against it.

"Don't eat him! Pulverize him!" Naruto yelled, at Slithery-kun, who silently nodded, as Orochimaru, his body broken, opened his mouth just in time to slither away, on his lower half the form of a snake.

"You running you coward!" Naruto yelled, as Orochimaru, actually, didn't stop. He had done what he was meant to do. Now, he had to go and get answers from Manda himself, about just what that old fool of his father was doing, granting snake summons to a kid. A kid who knew his techniques too.

Kabuto hadn't been too wrong, at all. *Another Orochimaru*, yeah…the only difference was the amount of chakra both of them had and the experience.

The snake sannin found himself but with one alternative: The boy had to die, soon. If he didn't, he'd be worse than a menace, he'd be a real threat…because he'd follow his footsteps, if he was *another Orochimaru*.

He wouldn't have bothered with *Another Tsunade* or *Another Jiraiya*, but another him? That was…that's when a fist nearly connected with the front of his face, forcing him backwards, and Naruto appeared finally in front of his view.

"What! I left you back there!" Orochimaru spat, now he was no longer amused, he'd kill the brat, and he'd be done with it, "You learned the Hiraishin from your father, you damn brat!"

Naruto moved his head to the side, curious, but then smiled.

"Not telling my secrets to someone who tried to murder my Oneechan." His head slowly cracked, as he relaxed his shoulders.

"Treat me well, while I skewer you." Naruto added, as the weights, went down. The Ninjato in his right hand enhanced itself with wind chakra, and then, then the boy charged forward and Orochimaru, inwardly, chuckled. Well, if the boy was *that* stupid, no need to waste time having him killed by someone else.

Kusanagi flew from his mouth making a sweeping motion that cut through the boy's sword, and the boy, in a single motion. Instead of blood, however, Orochimaru got smoke.

"Ah…Bad thing, snake-man!" another Naruto said, jumping down from a tree branch, a kunai in hand, "Don't you know, that I'm the One-man army?"

"Kage Bunshins won't scare me, brat." Orochimaru chuckled, one or two…

"Army, idiot, I said army." Now the *idiot* got onto Orochimaru's nerves. The brat was going be killed. That's when, charging against him, he was forced to dodge to the side, as kunais landed straight where he would have been.

Five other Naruto's where on the branches, staring at the man.

"I didn't know where you were…thanks for dispelling the first clone."

As Orochimaru looked around, more and more of that blond bratty face appeared around.

He actually began counting them, how many could there be? One hundred? Two Hundred…Two…Two thousands!

"Welcome to the Jungle, please enjoy your stay!" with that, they all charged at him.

"Mandara no Jin!" Orochimaru touched the ground with his hands, as snakes arose, summoned to act as a shield for their master, a shield and a sword, as they began throwing Ninjatos, Tantos and Kunais at the clones, who, since being hit slowed, but didn't stop the weapons momentum, were destroyed in the hundreds, until finally none remained, except one.

"You the real one?" Orochimaru snorted, he actually knew it wasn't him, but still, he felt he needed a break from *killing clones*.

"No. The real one has probably taken Oneechan to safety, you, on the other hand, will have to start running."

"Why would that be?" Orochimaru smirked.

"Because…*father* gave me one of his kunais to use, Orochimaru…and I still haven't used it," the boy replied with a polite tone, narrowing his gaze on the snake sannin.

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed, as he looked at the boy.

"And why wouldn't you do it?" he queried, curious.

"Because I'll prove my strength by defeating you, one day…but not today…today…I let you go," Naruto muttered, with a smirk, "I couldn't scratch you, but I'm letting you go, Orochimaru…do you understand just how funny it is? I'm doing this, because…" Naruto sighed, and shook his head, "Never mind, have to go." With that, even the last clone dispersed, and Orochimaru, narrowing his eyes, left silently.

_All that potential, gone to waste for Konoha…I did manage to mark Sasuke, however. That should be enough. I feel like I've been toyed with however…and I don't like that, at all._

Naruto, the real one, in the meantime, sighed, as he stared, a bit battered, at his Oneechan, who was still in the process of being healed by his own healing jutsu. At least he could try and numb the pain she was feeling.

"You know…I didn't believe for one second that you'd make the bastard run," Anko muttered, feverishly, "I couldn't even scratch the real him."

"I didn't scratch him either, Oneechan…" Naruto whispered, "I just gave him the escape as the most favorable option…and being a snake, he took it."

"I'm feeling offended about that," a voice spoke, from the tree above.

"You know I didn't mean you," Naruto replied, slowly.

"I know Boss, I know. We've got a lot of the Genins under control: idiots can't even distinguish rock from snakes. We're staying away from those with the snake earrings, and ignoring the Kumo squads and the Suna squad with the red hair. Anything else?"

"Keep an eye out for the other two grass Nins, the first one over there was Orochimaru," Naruto muttered.

"Then you'd better move boss, I saw them going towards your teams last known position," as Yoru spoke, from the branch he was perched on, Naruto sighed, looking into Anko's eyes, who were staring at him, kind of silently pleading him *not* to go, but knowing full well she couldn't stop him.

"I'll be fine, Oneechan," Naruto muttered, as he gave Anko a quick kiss on the forehead, "you go back to the tower, and warn everyone of Orochimaru, I go and save the day," with that, the boy, who didn't look more than fourteen, jumped down, to stop straight in front of Sakura, who was staring at him with a mixture of perplexity, surprise, and relief, she still was holding her Kunai in her hands, as she had been ready to strike the man, or at least, die trying.

"You did well," Naruto smiled, ruffling the girl's head, as Sakura was still on her knees, standing upright.

"I…" she muttered, if Naruto wanted to, he'd be able to take their scroll, without problems, would he? She wouldn't have anything against it if he did, *they* owed him their lives, after all.

"Now, guard your teammates until they get better, then grab his scroll," pointing at the remains of the grass Nins fake equipment, which had a scroll in there, "Which I believe you need, to get to the tower, and then go…got it?" as Sakura nodded, Naruto turned to leave.

"Wait!" she exclaimed, standing up, and looking him straight in the eyes, "I want to change! I don't want to be afraid anymore! Can you…after all of this…can you train me!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, puzzled, but then, with a bitter smile, shook his head.

"I can't," as Sakura's head turned down, he then grinned, "but I can convince someone to help you," Sakura raised her head again, perplexed, "trust me, you'll like her…I'm learning medical Ninjutsus from her right now," and with that, Naruto dashed off.

**You really think she's going to accept?**

_Rin-san *is* the second medic-nin I met that didn't outright try to throw me out of the medical library._

**Yeah…I'm sure she's going to end up asking you to butcher civilians then.**

_Would that be a bad thing, considering how things are?_

**Let's just get going. Reverse summon to where Yakumo's snake-earring is incoming!**

Naruto slowly waited, as small chakra bursts of the Kyuubi's chakra were sent through his coils, towards his jacket, where a small snake puffed out of existence, to later return, and then, Naruto felt space and time distort, as he reappeared right next to Yakumo, who had been catching fishes with a net using a sort of Samurai-Genjutsu and a Genjutsu net.

"Ack! Naruto-kun! Stop scaring me! Wait…you're wounded, right!" as the light brown haired girl looked at the torn fabric of his shirt, at the dried blood, but luckily, at no wound, since it had already been healed, she sighed in relief.

"Your regeneration powers are truly a bloodline of their own, Naruto-kun," Yakumo muttered.

"Where's Sai?" Naruto queried.

"He's at camp, over there, three trees to the left," Yakumo whispered back in a low voice, pointing in the direction of where Sai was supposed to be. Naruto nodded, placing his right hand on Yakumo's left shoulder.

"Listen, we have to get moving, we're being tracked," as he said that in a low voice, at the girl's ear, the Kunoichi couldn't help but slightly blush, before nodding, and standing up with the two caught trout, before heading back to camp, which Sai had just finished preparing.

Leaves that could be easily scattered on a whim to hide their passage, a campfire kept inside a dug hole in the ground that could then be covered to hide all traces of their passage, he had even gone as far as grabbing a white furred rabbit, and preparing himself to skin it.

"Sai…" Naruto whispered, narrowing his eyes, "Where did you get the rabbit?"

Sai stared at the rabbit, before whispering.

"He was hopping around," slowly reclining his head to the side, the Root member's expression turned into one of not-understanding. It wasn't the first time he didn't understand Naruto's actions, but they usually came with a purpose. So, if he took the rabbit like it was a time bomb, and threw it away, there had to be a reason for it.

"The white fur means he's either a winter rabbit or a rabbit grown in captivity, and there are no rabbits in this forest. The fluffiest thing in here are the lions, Sai." As Naruto slowly explained, Sai nodded, dismantling camp and moving once more. Yakumo stared perplexed, as even Naruto helped him on that.

"Why are you destroying camp?" she queried.

"Better to be hungry for a couple of hours more," Naruto whispered, as he created three Kage Bunshins to move in a general direction, trying to hide, but not too much, their passage, "then to be tracked and found in the night."

Yakumo nodded, it was like both Sai and Naruto had experiences rivaling hers by ages…but she was going to catch up! Homeschooled or not, she was going to prove just what a good Kunoichi she was.

*Kabuto- Grass Nin*

Orochimaru had gone to test the Uchiha, and that was to be expected. So, that left Kabuto, and the *grass* Nin next to him, Misumi, to go look for Naruto, and bring him on their side for their upcoming invasion. That was meant to be, at least, the plan. The problem was that Misumi hadn't even been able to flinch, as a snake the size of a wooden trunk had severed him in half, pounding at him and then disappearing into the background. Kabuto was surprised. He expected monsters, he expected beasts, but he also expected that his associate's skills would have been enough to detect and avoid the danger. The problem was that he wasn't alone now. There were snakes slithering around him. If this was a way for Orochimaru to say he was displeased, then it clearly was time he tried, tried being the key word, to suggest not killing someone every time. Subjects for experiments were better alive than dead!

He was at a halt, his feet on the grassy ground, next to a fallen giant tree, as his eyes narrowed, having heard some hisses coming from the front, he swiftly ducked down, letting his chakra scalpel move slightly upwards, against the belly of another snake, who had pounced at him in silence from behind, blood came for a moment, before a puff of smoke made the giant snake disappear.

Kabuto's thoughts didn't twirl, at the display of shrewdness and intelligence of the snakes. Kabuto, simply, understood the situation. The snakes were trained, they belonged to someone, and they had been summoned there, but that someone wasn't Orochimaru. At least, he hoped his master wasn't displeased with him at the point of sending his summons to fight him, in the middle of a very important phase of the plan.

He realized, after a moment, that he was alone. A second before the snakes had come, but the next, they had disappeared. It took just a split second more to realize why: the summoner had arrived. Appearing in black and red jacket and shirt, with the Uzumaki whirlpool in a blood red color, wearing black trousers and sporting black armguards, Naruto stood in front of Kabuto for a moment, before chuckling.

"I'd recognize that chakra scalpel and that skill anywhere, Kabuto-Oniisan," as he spoke, the Oto spy couldn't help but grin back, as he slowly brought a couple of senbon needles into the palm of his left hand, from his sleeve, ready to throw them at a moment's notice, while with his right hand, he removed his *skin* from the face.

"Naruto-kun, glad to see you…are the snakes your pets?" Kabuto queried, as the boy had never once, under his tutelage, spoken about snake-nins, he had spoken about Kuro, his pet snake that could talk, but about an army of snakes at his commands, in the forest of death? Not a word.

"Yes they are. They're my summons. You work for Orochimaru, right? That face thingy is the same thing *he* used." Kabuto slightly tensed, as *Orochimaru* came out with a bit of anger, in the boy's voice. Did the fourth tell him who he was? Did he make him wary of him?

"Orochimaru-sama is my master, yes," Kabuto spoke, no use hiding something, it would just make the boy tense more, "and he has taken an interest to your potential…he wishes to meet with you," he added, slowly.

"Done that already," Naruto replied with a chuckle, "and now I think that more than interested, I'd say he's royally pissed," as he added that, he let a hand scratch through the top of his head.

"Why would you say that, Naruto-kun?" Kabuto's eyes had narrowed to slits, what did the boy do? Call his father to battle Orochimaru? But then with the fourth fighting, there would have to be summons, and even *that* technique would need to be used, after all.

"He tried to harm my Oneechan," Naruto's eyes narrowed, "I made him understand that it didn't come without consequences," as Naruto's gaze turned murderous, and red, Kabuto couldn't help but chuckle at the boy's boasting.

"You, a Genin? You gave the legendary Snake Sannin Orochimaru-sama a lesson? I can't believe you would spew such idiocy from your mouth…"

"Yeah, you want to know another fun thing?" Naruto said, with a wicked grin.

"What? You've got the Third Hokage under your sleeve?" Kabuto replied.

"No, but the fourth is more than enough, for you," the voice spoke from behind Kabuto's back, as Naruto, in front of him, chuckled, showing off a three pronged Kunai.

Kabuto, quite actually, felt pain, a lot of pain, he felt it in the blink of an eye, as speed, attacks, slashes, all he saw were blurs of yellow, as blood and muscles and bones were torn, and he knew it was a losing battle, and he knew there was no way he was going to get out of there alive, safe for Orochimaru's intervention.

"Rasengan!" as the Yondaime's Hokage signature Jutsu went off, hitting straight into the stomach Kabuto, sending him to twirl and then hit with his back on the trunk of a tree, with such sheer force and brutality that it made Kabuto gasp. _That sort of strength and speed is inhumane!_

The Oto spy he fell on the ground, no longer able to even twitch a finger, as he realized that maybe, Naruto's boast hadn't been so much about Orochimaru being taught a lesson, but about keeping him away from him to let the fourth capture him.

No need to capture the king, if you can capture the queen, after all, and he was no match for the fourth's speed, the Yondaime that Naruto hated so much was simply another tool for him, clearly. Kabuto closed his eyes, too much blood loss, and activating anything chakra related would probably simply have the Fourth attack him more.

"Well…you surprised me, I never thought you'd actually use the Kunai to call for me, Naruto-kun," The fourth's voice spoke to the boy, who shrugged, before dropping the Kunai on the ground, "finally understanding the situation you're in?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama, as long as I'm sealed I'm all yours," Naruto sighed, scratching the back of his head, it itched. Where the seal was, it made him want to scratch it, and to kill the damn bastard in front of him painfully. Straight behind his neck-hair, the seal, a sixteen point seal, stood. Proof on just how much the Hokage wanted him to stay in his grasp, as even the seal on his stomach, for the Kyuubi, was just an eight point seal.

"Well, at least we're fine on this, now dispel and keep doing your job. By the way…Make sure that only one Kumo Nins group passes this test, if both reach the tower, take one of the two out by all means necessary…understood?" Minato spoke clearly, staring into the eyes of his *son*, at least he was useful, once he understood truly where he was meant to be.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," with that, Naruto was dismissed and he puffed away, having been nothing more than a shadow clone. Kabuto, from his position on the ground, would have smirked, had he not been in pain. So that was the reason he hated the Hokage but was still on his side…with freedom, one could actually convince the little bird to change sides, no matter how many *Oneechans* there were in the middle.

"Now, time to get the little snake's friend to the torture department," Kabuto winced at those words, sure, he was faking being defeated, and completely and utterly beaten and fainted, but he didn't, at all, wish to partake in the pleasures of tortures. If only that dam idiot of a Misumi hadn't died, he could at least have tried to _die _in his place. Instead, now, he was forced to wait.

The fourth's steps got a bit closer, a bit more, and then, finally, Kabuto's right hand sent chakra to the explosive tag in between his index and middle finger, activating it and throwing it straight ahead of him.

As the explosion covered in smoke the area, Kabuto made his escape. He had to warn Orochimaru-sama, he had to warn him and to help him in his purpose, so that he, too, could find his own purpose.

*Team Hayari-Mogura-Shinkansen – Second Day*

One entire day, to camp, take food, take water supplies, check their surroundings, and now, where they stood, they were utterly lost. It hadn't been the first time they had walked in circles, but this was starting to get stupid. Hayari couldn't believe she had been gone for the bathroom for five minutes, and had now been lost for over an hour. It was just around a damn tree! How difficult could it be! She stopped, shaking her head. This had to be a Genjutsu, clearly.

"Kai!" nothing, it didn't dispel. She was truly lost. It was like her brain had decided to play tricks on her, was this some sort of *Cabin Fever* sickness, only called *Forest fever*? No, she had to concentrate. Was it the forest herself that had decided she didn't exist, thus barring her from actually moving anywhere inside of it? Once she thought about having being forgotten by her teammates, and that, that made her wince. That was what she got for cleaning her face, and stopping being obnoxious, there was no way they'd remember her, or see her, now. She would be left to her own accord in the forest, maybe for years, until someone would actually stroll over her body, dead from hunger.

She decided she had enough, panting and wheezing hard, as she slowly sat down on a tree stump. The next moment, something bit her on her ass cheek, and as she yelped back up in a startled surprise, she soon felt the light fade off her eyes, as she fell into an unconscious sleep.

"Carry her to a safe place," Naruto whispered to a mass of snakes who nodded, before starting to pull the girl out of the way, "Yakumo, thank you."

The Kurama clan girl nodded, sitting on a tree branch up above, from which she had sent Hayari on a Genjutsu trip until she had been far away from all other teams.

"Naruto-kun," she whispered, "weren't they your friends?"

The blond haired boy's gaze hardened, as he slowly turned to Yakumo, with a bit of a shy grin.

"I need no Kumo scum as friends, Yakumo-chan I love Konoha so much…" Yakumo tightly embraced Naruto's head in her arms, gently caressing the back of his hair.

"Don't do this with me…please, I know when people lie," she whispered, keeping away the tears, "I see the grief on your face, Naruto-kun, it was the same as my mothers," the girl added slowly, "When she found out how I could make illusions real…she knew the fate of our clan members, she had that much grief, please…I'm here, if you want to cry," with that, Naruto slowly patted Yakumo's back.

"Everything's fine, Yakumo-chan…let's get to this," as he whispered that, his right hand made the signal to Sai, on the other side of the tree branches, who nodded, as Ink lions slowly, but surely, prowled downwards, attacking Shinkansen who had been on the look-out for Hayari. Mogura however cleaved the ground in two, before any of the lions could near them, making them lose their footing and granting Shinkansen the chance, with a Kunai, to deal with them fast.

From his vantage point Naruto pointed at Shinkansen, and Yakumo nodded, while to Sai he made the signs for.

_Near blind. Smells. Hears._

Sai nodded, as three seconds later, Shinkansen felt his mind being pulled into a world made of shadows, where everyone moved slow, a world that for the fast ninja, was just a nightmare. Mogura, on the other hand, suddenly felt surrounded by strong pungent aromas and deafening noises, which forced him to dig underground. Bad move, because just as he had dug himself down, he cracked against the air, stumbling straight into a snake's nest. That was all too happy to teach the mole-boy, still stunned from the previous attacks, not to interrupt snake-talking parents about what their snake-talking younglings should do. Mogura yelped himself out of the nest, trying to recall if snakes usually were capable of such feats, it was like somebody had placed them there, straight under where he was, but that would have meant hearing digging sounds, and all he had heard had been the slithering of snakes, so common everywhere in the forest! Shinkansen was already out, and Mogura, staring in front of him, could barely see a black haze move closer, and then, he fell to the darkness.

*Kiba group – Second day*

"Ah! Told you it was going to be an easy run!" Kiba grinned fiercely as he watched Shino, and Hinata, follow him inside the base of the tower. Shino couldn't share the same smile of his teammate, he knew for a fact *why* it had been that easy. When the third giant anaconda you cross paths with, smiles at you, you come to understand just who *granted* them passage. When you do understand that you start thinking, whatever it was, it's baby-sitting. That was the reason Naruto gave the *thing* to him, a small snake that had the form of an earring. It was a way to pass through, without problems, without worries. It was, however, also a subtle way to show his strength, his subtle but great strength in his *home*.

Shino couldn't help but feel belittled, feel like had cheated the whole purpose of the exam, he felt that someone, somewhere, was actually toying with him. He had no choice on the matter however, and he just hoped his strength, in the next part, would be more than enough to quench this uneasy feeling that, something, somewhere, was wrong.

Hinata was happy, instead, slightly cheerful, sure the snakes were scary, but not as much as her parents, when they trained her, or when she had to spar with either Hanabi or Neji, she was glad she hadn't met Neji in there. She was really glad everything had gone fine, without blood, or deaths, she was really fine.

Kiba was trying to smile and encourage the rest of his pack, but he felt his boss hands on all of this. The snakes moving around had probably scared whatever team came before them, into dropping their own scroll that had to be it. He was sure his boss would baby him into reaching the goal, furthermore, he wasn't even sure the boss had all that control on the forest, it would require a frigging amount of strength to do that, right?

Akamaru barked, slightly whining too, as he had felt the need to tell his partner something important.

The smell of snake coming from Shino's coat had disappeared, puffed out of existence. However his partner was a bit on the stupid side of the line, and instead, decided he wanted a bath.

He hated bathes.

*Shikamaru – Third Day*

Troublesome was to say the least.

His plan had been simple, wait near the tower for a party to come around, and then block them while Ino stayed in support and Chouji rolled in for the victory strike.

The truth was that, instead, they had spent two days moving around the forest, seeing nothing but snakes that slithered around, but that didn't pay him any attention. It was like being escorted by them. He was being baby-walked, and that, that felt troublesome too. He had a distinct feeling that, while troublesome, the snakes were doing the same for anyone else that Naruto had given the earrings to. He was sure there was more than one, the Yakumo girl sported one, and so he had made more. He looked at it with another curious glance. It had taken him one day to realize it was *still* warm. The thing wasn't an earring: it was a real life small snake. That meant that, instead of being a pheromone imbued object, it had to be something else.

"Troublesome," he muttered, "How are we going to find a scroll, if we keep being baby-sat?" the Nara had just muttered the question to the sky, that a scroll of earth flew down straight in front of him. Having a scroll of heaven, that completed the combo.

"Now this is luck Shika!" Ino yelled, before Shikamaru actually shook his head.

It couldn't be. The scroll was the right one, so someone had to have told Naruto about was scroll they needed, but there was no way anyone, except the Chuunin examiner would, and that would be cheating, no-one… except the snakes that had been baby-sitting them.

_Oh Kami…these are his summons. This is his home. Troublesome problem…_

"Chouji, Ino, I need you two to promise me something," Shikamaru muttered, as he neared the scroll.

"What…chomp chomp… is it, Shika?" Chouji queried, seeing the distressed look on the Nara.

"Whatever happens…do not fight Naruto… Never fight Naruto."

"Why? I mean, how strong can he be?" Ino queried, "There's no way he'd be stronger than Sasuke-kun," she added.

"The scroll was given to us by Kami?" Shikamaru rhetorically answered, "no, and look around, do you think being escorted by giant anacondas is normal, you damn woman!" That sounded so much like his father, when he spoke to his mother.

"No need to be angry, Shika, fine," Ino rolled her eyes, "I won't fight Naruto."

"Chomp…Chomp…I won't either." Chouji nodded, as Shikamaru sighed.

"Let's get going towards the tower now," Shikamaru muttered, "this is getting too troublesome."

*Team Neji*

Neji hated that Kumo lover bastard. He hated him with every ounce of his being, but he was too superior to that trash, to even think about considering him worthy of attention. So why was Rock Lee still speaking, after three days, of his youthfulness? They had found a scroll, taken from a group of knocked out Genins from Amegakure, who all had seemed to have been thrown through half of the forest, and some even had burnt marks on them. The fact that, however, made Neji actually use his brain, instead of waiting for Tenten, or Lee, to realize it, was that the forest was *avoiding* them, no beasts. No problems, no enemies. The forest either knew their strength or it understood that. However, there was no doubt in his mind that it had to be something else, entirely. The *weight-belt* that Lee was having on was something that made him perplexed, firstly, because it had a chakra circulatory system, which meant it was alive, but secondly, because it was actually acting like a belt, no matter how much Lee poked it, touched it, or did stuff to it, it stayed still. It had to be a snake, clearly, but, to Neji's memory, there was only one *snake mistress* and that had been Anko.

His mind drifted once more to the encounter with the boy from Kumo, to how he had ignored him, outright, not wanting to spat out some Konoha superiority to him, but mostly, he had stared at the annoyed expression of the examiner, Mitarashi Anko herself, she did look like she cared for the boy, going as far as stick her tongue out in a sort of joke when she thought his Hyuga vision wasn't able to see, but the vision of a Hyuga was ever lasting, perfect, three hundred and sixty degrees, and nothing could hide from it. Nothing, and no-one, so why did he felt followed, why did he feel the fact that someone, somewhere, was following him, keeping track on his movement, and those of the team? He didn't know, but he knew something was wrong.

He just couldn't put his finger on it.

Meters underground, snakes slithered digging their way silently, pouring their chakra in front of their head like their leader told them to, Kuro-sama excepted them to do their job to perfection, and they would obey, for they were the weaklings who had been granted to live, they had been shown mercy to the cruel world, and they would return that mercy tenfold. So if the one who helped Kuro-sama wanted them to make sure no harm came to certain groups, they'd obey. It was their duty, it was their work, it was what they were born to do, but they were giving choice, and that, that made the difference for them.

As Neji finally saw with his vision the beginning of the tower, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes, there was the Kumo-lover, standing there, in silence, a mountain of scrolls under him, and next to him.

"Need a scroll?" Naruto queried, with a small smile, as Lee saw with amazement the sheer quantity of scrolls that had been piled up neatly at the base of the tower.

"Naruto-kun! YOSH! This is excellent work! How youthful you are!" Lee said, a happy sparkle on his face, before Neji, actually, narrowed his eyes.

"Lee, get away from him. Don't you get it?" Lee turned around, raising an eyebrow, perplexed.

"What is it, Neji-san?"

"The scrolls belong to other Genin teams, but to leave them there…he had to kill all the others," Lee's face paled, as did Tenten's, "as to avoid them coming here and taking one back. He's there to kill whoever tries to grab a scroll of his…"

"Naruto-kun!" Lee's face turned to Naruto, who raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, Lee-kun?"

"Did you kill all the other teams?" Lee exclaimed.

"What if I did? What if I didn't? Changes something?" Naruto queried, with a *I don't care attitude*.

"That was most un-youthful! I am ashamed that…"

"Lee, get away!" Neji yelled, as he dashed straight forward to aim at one of Naruto's Tenketsu points. Only to find his right arm blocked in a fierce grip, he could feel the strength in it: it would break his wrist if it kept on. What stopped Neji, however, was the stare, the murderous glare that the boy had with his blue eyes, as he looked straight into the Hyuga's ones.

"There is to be something wrong with Hyuga's style. You know?" Naruto replied, letting the boy's hand go.

"But it's a weakness I'll enjoy using," he added, carefully, before grinning, "I am letting you pass in the tower, remember this…you are here because _I decided that_," and with that, Naruto puffed into smoke, a Kage Bunshin.

"The Jyuken style has no weaknesses, it has none." Neji muttered, to himself, as Lee was shivering, his eyes narrowing at the boy who just that morning had acted so much youthful. There had to be something going on, he had to find out what it was, and return the youthfulness to him!

"Strange guy, scaring us like that," Tenten muttered, as they entered the base of the tower. Well, they had arrived, and now it was even clear who had knocked out the other squads.

*Team Sumire*

He was there. She couldn't help but keep a wide grin on her face every time she saw him. Orochimaru-sama had told her of what tortures those monsters had subjected him to, and she, she had been spared those atrocities because the boy had taken them, and then Orochimaru had come to save her, with the aid of Zabuza and Haku. She had been saved by them, even when she felt something else, in her head, was missing, another voice, feminine, saying something.

"_She's the daughter of the Hokage! Killing her is a waste!" _someone said that sentence, but it was all hazy. She recalled having fallen down after the ground gave in, she recalled seeing a snake, and then she knew it was Orochimaru, who had been in the area, and who couldn't save her then but had sent his trustworthy Ninjas to save them.

He had even gone as far as bringing her back to the village of Konoha, but there she had heard of how it was unfortunate, that such a brat hadn't yet been subjected to the same tortures of her brother. She had cringed, she had fled, and Orochimaru had been there to bring her back home. Unknown to her, it had all been a nice mental trip orchestrated by the Snake Sannin, but after all, loyal subjects were hard to find.

Now, the blue haired girl, with green eyes, the results of little to no genetic alteration, had grown into a Kunoichi. She was strong, smart, capable, even Tayuya-san from the sound four was happy to see her around. She knew everything was going to be fine, as her mission right there, was something Orochimaru-sama had entrusted to her, in particular, because of her skills: convince Naruto Uzumaki, her Oniisan, to defect Konoha before the end of the Chuunin exams.

She had hoped she could manage to sway him with her newly found feminine charms, but the tortures her *Kaa-san* that old hag, subjected him too had to include brainwashing, almost certainly, she needed to get him out of there. Slowly, she'd earn a place next to him, then she'd save him, and then…then he'd trust her, finally, and they would be friends!

Karin rolled her eyes over, once more, at the sight of her teammate chuckling. Yoroi was the one who seemed the most sane out of the group she had ended up in, he and his maniacal laughter about how *sucking motions* were the best. There had to be something wrong, in his brain, to actually enjoy vacuum cleaners that much, or straws. He clearly had to be swinging another way, because all he could mutter about, as he was placing his head on a Suna Genin, was about how he'd "Suck sucky suck" all the chakra out. That was making her shiver. These Genins weren't at all able to compete with them, they were, after all, Oto-nins, actually of at least Chuunin level already, but still…she looked at Sumire, she was doing *that* again.

"Sumire," she called to the girl, who turned around, raising an eyebrow, "please, don't draw on the corpses," as she said that, the blue haired girl winced for a moment, before realizing that she had a black marker out, and was drawing glasses and mustaches on a deceased, and disemboweled, shinobi.

"But…I'm bored!" she whined, getting up to attention, "Karin-chan, can't we get going?"

"Sucks to be you! I suck at being me!" Yoroi finished muttered to the poor Genin, who probably died more from the horrible catch phrases than from having his chakra forcefully extracted from his coils.

"Fine, let's go." Karin muttered, as they began heading out. The forest was filled with life, all around them. The fact that it seemed to be ninety-nine percent made of snakes that seemed to particularly enjoy trying to eat them, was something strange. The fact they went with hit and leave tactics, however, was something else. The fact that some of them had chakra circulatory systems, and where capable of using them, that was coloring her face with an unknown worry that they were somewhere they shouldn't at all, have set foot in. They still needed the scroll, and the ninjas here had provided them with one. However…they had been *moved* there, they had been forced to meet, to fight, to scuttle. It was like someone wanted them to go around and meat each other, as giant anacondas do a wonder in convincing people to turn around and go another way.

Someone was using them, the forest was his ground.

Karin recalled the words of Naruto, *the target* of her group, he said something about it.

"_There is a guardian of the forest,"_ well, she hadn't seen him yet, and they did kill a couple of snakes. At least, she hoped her kunai had hit something: all she had seen had been flashes of green and brown most of the time. Just how fast could those things go? But mostly…just who, sane of his mind, would train snakes in a forest of death for Genins to later pass on? He understood being sadistic, but these snakes were more ninjas than half the Genins brats she had seen at the exam, did the fourth Hokage have some sort of snake army, ready to deploy? Was it the secret weapon of Konoha?

Lost in her thoughts she took a second too much before detecting a spike in chakra that soon became a flame of fire, straight in front of her.

The group stopped, as in front of them stood a black snake, his eyes, red, staring at the two of them with a sarcastic grin, in a recoiled position. He had come from up above, certainly, did he know how to land softly, like ninjas?

"I am the trail blazer of the plains," the snake spoke! That was something few snakes did, and usually, the biggest ones, like Manda-sama, the snake summon of Orochimaru-sama…who had a bad temper, really short fuse for his anger, and was always hungry, "the burner of Armageddon, Yoru, the fire snake!"

"A talking snake! Sucks to be without…" Yoroi would have wanted to say more, but a tail jumped straight up from the ground, covered in spikes and rocks, as another snake, bigger than the first, emerged.

"Scaly-chan!" Yoru whined, "I can take care of these guys alone!" the bigger snake said nothing, as he recoiled, ready to pounce at the group who stared at each other, before nodding.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" as soon as Sumire yelled that, conjuring five other clones, they all grabbed Ninjatos, dashing straight ahead at the enemies, while Karin stood on the back, and Yoroi grabbed a Kunai with an explosive tag.

Scaly wiped the ground area with her powerful tail swipe, while Kuro, slithering on it like it was natural, jumped keeping his head to the side, and locking on all five kage bunshins, he concentrated his poisonous spit with the fiery fire chakra he possessed.

"Yoru's Cocktail! From Hell with passion!" the next moment, as the poison spit out, latching onto the flames, a sort of gush of flame passed straight through the kage bunshins, making them disperse in puff of smokes. Yoru wasn't born yesterday, however, and swiftly tailed to the side, avoiding a Ninjato where he would have been moments before.

"No smart guys with Kage bunshins fight on the front line, good luck: my Boss uses that technique daily." With that, Sumire bit her lower lip: this was one of Naruto's snakes! It wasn't going to be easy, especially when he was *that* fast. He curled into a circle position by biting his own tongue, rolling swiftly on his back while aiming against her head, and, even though she brought the Ninjato to parry, sparks were generated instead of normally cutting the snake in half.

"Scales will be scales!" as Yoru detached his mouth from his tail, he flicked his tail *backwards* effectively pushing himself, in a sort of push-up motion, upwards, straight against the girl, his fangs open, ready to strike. That's when the Kunai that imbedded itself into his stomach made him wince, and puff out in smoke.

Karin had senbon needles coated with poison, but the poison wasn't going to cut it with the biggest, and rock hard scales of the snake.

She didn't need to, however, as the scaled anaconda disappeared, digging underground and letting them leave. Even though Sumire wobbled while on the anaconda's back, before jumping down to reach safety.

"What happened up there? You were fighting a black thing…one of your lenses fell off," as Karin quickly replaced it with another, Sumire whispered.

"That was one of *his* snakes…He'll know. We must hurry." Karin nodded, at that staring at Yoroi, who, for the entirety of the fight, had been throwing Kunai against the scaled and rocky back of the anaconda.

When Naruto arrived in the clearing, hours later, angry as only he could be, he found no traces of the group, but narrowed his eyes.

"Remember the foraging lessons: if it's not nailed to the ground, we can use it." With that, he dispersed in smoke, as the real one, finally, took a deep breath.

*Team Naruto*

"Let's get in, shall we?" as Yakumo, and Sai, nodded, they slowly entered the base of the tower, grabbing their two scrolls and revealing, through that…

"Naruto-kun! Yakumo-chan! Sai-kun! I knew you'd make it!" the smiling red haired Jounin-sensei said, her wide grin clearly showing.

"So I made you cookies!" as the Jounin actually had a bag of cookies in her hands, one of the two bandaged, and heavily under seals, she delivered it to Naruto, who stood in the center of the group.

"I've missed you lot," she even added, opening her arms for a hug, before crashing them down on the entire group, hugging them till they were slowly blue, and finally letting them go.

"Now! Yakumo-chan, Sai-kun, you should both get some rest, Naruto-kun, you have to come with me see my, once more, husband," she giggled at that, as Naruto had to smile, he had to smile, albeit he actually have wanted to puke his own innards out and commit ritual seppuku, "he wanted to congratulate you for your work in the forest, something about *snake-hunting*," Naruto nodded, silently, as he waved goodbye to Yakumo-chan, who had the biscuit package, and to Sai-kun, before following his sensei, as they started to climb the stairs.

"Naru-chan," Kushina spoke softly, which made Naruto slightly tense, before being forced to smile back, and whisper.

"Yes, Kaa-san?"

"I was so worried for you. You're never going to die, right?" she queried, serious in her tone, as her face however distended notably, after just using that appellative.

"Never, ever, Kaa-san…" _I've got a home to return to, after all…in Kumo._

"Good!" she giggled, before looking at her right hand, "I wonder if Minato will ever remove this thing from my hand…even Tsunade-san said it was nothing…"

"What happened, Kaa-san?" Naruto whispered, in his most worried tone, the son-worried tone, wanting to tear out his vocal cords in the same moment.

"Oh…nothing to be afraid of, Naru-chan," Kushina replied, ruffling her son's hair with her left hand, "just some inflammation, probably, it did turn slightly red a couple of days ago, but I'm sure it will get better, I've got my healing balm right here, after all."

With that, she gave Naruto a kiss on the forehead, before reassuming a sort of serious tone, as they had to meet the Hokage and report what *he* had done in the forest, and what *his* clones had done. Somebody had even wounded Yoru, and he couldn't go and be next to him, because he had this to do. His fist clenched as he waited for Kushina to knock on the door, he took deep breath, as his eyes menaced to turning red.

…**calm down kid. Calm down, you've got to calm down.**

_I…Will…Have…My…REVENGE._

**I want a pony! **The Kyuubi yelled out loud, which made Naruto bulge his eyes, for a split second, before turning to his own left hand, letting out a small chuckle.

_Thank Kami I have you, Kurama-chan…I'd be lost without someone this… *sincere*? _Naruto mentally snickered, as he made his way straight after Kushina had been given permission to enter the small private studio in the tower at the center of the forest of death, temporary place.

**You know this changes nothing, you *could* remove the chains out of the gate, you know, their rattling is getting on my nerves.**

_Will you be a nice fox and try not to lash out at the gate? Or unscrew the hinges?_

**Damn…I'm going to call for a meeting with animal protection agencies. This is barbarism.**

Naruto rolled his eyes, as he couldn't help but make a small grin, at the Hokage yelling straight against his Anbu platoons that couldn't even find out Kabuto in the middle of the grass nins.

"…with the abilities you have, I'd be surprised if Katsumi weren't actually in Konoha in this moment, eating ramen somewhere!"

Somewhere, in the tower, a blue-haired girl sneezed, before turning her powdered ramen into real ramen, by putting some water to boil.

"Just *how* can you keep eating that stuff?" Karin queried.

"It's good…It's the only thing good." The girl whispered back.

**Authors notes:**

**Last night, after updating, I found myself with the need to write again, reaching 9K words, then I said: Meh, let's do all the second part fast, so here are 15 K of words.**

**Q&A**

**Dragonrising: we don't know yet. Danzo doesn't know it's minato's child…yet.**

**Shinsou tengen: want to write about elemental snakes? Write away! No problems whatsoever.**

**Guest: aw…poor Orochimaru, Lawful good? Really? The second option…you actually *got* a good chunk of it true. And by *good* I mean most of it. **

**GuestN°2: May the power of youth be with you TOO!**

**Ghibly: Meh, more than crazy…I'd say desperate. Chains upon chains, he's starting to realize just what the Kyuubi goes through every day. Being in a boiler room. **

**Syynex: Well, thanks for the good luck! **

**Guest N°3: super human intelligent trophy? Wow! Well, can't please the entire crowd, albeit saying what you didn't like would go great lengths, you know?**

**Mysterious blue jay: And another update is up! Kumo? Konoha? Why not the land of vegetables, plowing fields…*muses over the thought***

**Tamult: Probably, if not for the fact that it would take centuries to convince Minato to actually hand the scroll of sealing jutsus *over*, and Orochimaru? Heck, Naruto will get it from his cold hands, nobody harms his oneechans and lives!**

**Wishstone500: Thanks for the praise of originality! I doubt about Genin-Kage level though…**

**Esparza: If I tell you it's neither of the three, but something far more bastard? **

**Narutoluver: Kushina isn't *healed* of her instability, she's been *stabilized* for the moment, and yeah, another point is…will Naruto really manage to leave? Will he not? Who knows.**

**Sayuri-yuuko: Thanks for the praise! And no, I'm afraid Minato Namikaze will not die soon…I mean, there's much more to do!**

**Lumpeyeone: The defense attorney has listed the claims, what does the accuser says? *Minato: "Guilty!" Council: "Guilty!" on with the next charge. It wouldn't need much more than a suspicion, unluckily, Naruto has the short end of the stick, being a *Kumo-lover* anything to bind him to Konoha is worthy of note, and being a Jinchuuriki that *belonged* to Konoha in the beginning, well, that too.**

**Sasunarufan4life: Thanks!**

**IMsabbel: no shame in reading on, well, he didn't become a mass murderer, he did experiment on living bodies of Jounins and Anbus, and then left them there, paralyzed, with their muscles torn and legs broken, until the poison went off and they could scream for help. Under Kabuto's tutelage he learned a lot of medic-nin stuff! As for him acting like a child…he is technically eleven years old, in a fourteen years old body, who has the same cerebral sanity of a psycho-addict of fallout 3. As long as he moves along lines, he's fine, something destabilize him, he *reverts* to a state or another.**

**Fuyutaro son: he grew a backbone! A steel hard backbone!**

**Tzeentch: … you know, I am kind of thinking how sakura would be a nice character, with Naruto dead. Think about it: Pink-haired Kunoichi crying in a corner, all day, all night. Hundreds of chapters of Sakura, the original fangirl cannon one, crying in a corner because she's fat and Sasuke doesn't like her…no. Sorry, I'm shivering at the thought.**

**Dragonskyt: Now come on, zombies aren't real…Kushina is. *cough* isn't. the cyber bacon is in the oven, last I checked, thanks for the cookie by the way. **

**Guest/Mike: Thanks!**

**Dbzsotrum9: Who knows? It could happen, it could not, if it does, it's on Naruto's head. **

**Mzr90: The couch will forever be remembered as a Hero of War.**

**Gentleman Moriarty: It's going to be more awesome than that…trust me!**

**Limascp: happiness is overrated, anger and sadness are the new stuff! ( I put cookies at the end, however)**

**Duelwarrior: I don't know why everyone over values the nine tails power. It takes time to reach the nine tail, the Hokage is the damn yellow flash of Konoha, and it takes, now, Him+Yamato to effectively stop Naruto on his tracks, as it cuts off all the chakra he has. Danzo *has* been something of a grey shade for Naruto, at the moment. Naruto knows who the man is, so he knows what to expect. **

**Naginator: If he did that, he'd still get something. Even if you kill a man in defense, you get some months of jail for it (process, trial, and so on). So, that means it would have been better for him to *hide* the deal. **

**Lightninblade: Instead of the invasion, I thought about Orochimaru entering the *let's gang on Naruto* team. So the fourth doesn't die and they all get to harm Naruto till he drops.**

… **(It's a joke)…**

**Ezcap1st: It's going to be funny! Whatever happens, don't worry, fun will prevail! Even in the depth of death and darkness…**

**General answers:**

**I suppose there was no need to mention that Gaara's team passed with sand and sickening crunches.**

**AS of now, the passing teams are:**

**Gaara-Temari-Kankuro**

**Naruto-Yakumo-Sai**

**Yagura-Sakura-Sasuke (they arrive on the blink of time, next chapter)**

**Hinata-Shino-Kiba**

**Neji-Lee-Tenten**

**Shoko-Yugoro-Saya**

**Sumire-Karin-Yoroi**

**Ino-Shikamaru-Chouji**

**Now, anyone wants to see some particular Vs next chapter? Except those I'll have for plot needs, you can ask. If I can fit them in I'll do it.**


	17. Finalizing

Seventeenth chapter

"_Good job, Naruto-kun!" _the Hokage's fake smile still lingered into Naruto's head, as he stood, together with the others who had passed the exams, or who had, at least, made it to the tower, in wait for the final moments of time to tick away, just as they were about to finish, marking only seven teams to have passed, the eighth team strolled in, looking like they had been fighting in the mud and in the blood till then. Sasuke held the back of his neck, pressed hard, as Sakura instead stared ahead with a mixture of anxiety and relief, at having made it in time, while Yaguro was breathing hardily, pressing his stomach.

In front of the teams stood the Hokage, on an elevated stage, together with the Raikage who watched, his eyes narrowing as he seemed intent on carving a hole straight into Naruto with his gaze, who, except wincing, didn't return it. The senseis summoned by the scrolls were on the level above, watching down below, as the students had arrived. Kakashi had obviously arrived at a leisurely pace, and had, slowly, taken place next to Kushina, who was watching, kind of grinning every two seconds, whispering *Naruto-kun!* like any mother would to attract a son's attention, and seemed her normal self, at least at first glance.

"_Time to test *normal* out"_ Kakashi thought, as he looked at Sakura, who was staring at Naruto, with some sort of hopeful gaze. Something which the copy-cat ninja didn't miss, nor did he miss the look of scowl on Sasuke's face, having lost a fan girl he didn't care about at all to a *rival* so called by him, was a major blow, that, and the fact that his neck hurt, but he had refused medical attention, was making the silver-haired Jounin suspicious he was hiding something.

"Kushina-san," Kakashi spoke slowly, as the red-haired woman turned around, her right hand had been bandaged and even sealed, by the Hokage, for some sort of reason, "I should thank Naruto-kun, for what he did for my team." Kushina raised an eyebrow, staring at Naruto and then back at Kakashi.

"Did he do something? Naruto-kun is always so eager to help other Konoha's Nins, he's the perfect Konoha ninja," as she happily said that, Kakashi saw her four Anbu guards slightly tense, as on the other side of the elevated floor, the Kumo ninjas sensei was staring with a hardened, and probably even murderous glare, at the red-haired woman. C was his name. He was a sensor ninja, so he was probably able to lip-read, or at least to hear from that distance.

"If it weren't for him, Sakura-chan would have died," as Kakashi spoke quietly, Kushina's smile stood frozen on the woman's face for a moment, before shaking her head.

"Obviously, she's a Konoha Nin, he'd help her out as fellow ninjas," she replied, but Kakashi didn't miss the woman narrowing her eyes, as she stared at Sakura. The pink-haired girl felt slightly nervous, all of a sudden, like if something was piercing her head, something that was making her slightly pale. She instinctively moved her hair back, behind her ears, revealing the bright green snake-form earring that Kushina, having been staring at her, didn't miss at all. _Only whores pierce their ears when they were eleven years old! _The red-haired woman thought with spite, as Kakashi said nothing more, she returned to stare to her son, who waited, quietly, like all the others, for the Hokage to start speaking.

"Well, congratulation to you all," the Hokage said, politely after a moment more, as he stared at the Genins in front of him. Naruto had done indeed a good job, letting only one Kumo team pass, one Oto team pass, one Suna team pass, and the rest belonging to Konoha, he was outright pleased at that, albeit he kind of wondered what he did to the other teams, sure, death was in order, and available, but he just hoped he didn't trash around all the other Konoha's Genins, "however, you are a bit too many for the last part, that should take place in a month, so, we will hold selections for the tournament right now."

No murmurs, no talking, nobody said anything as the Hokage thus, spoke on.

"You will be given an hour of rest, so that medic-nins will take care of the wounded, and for those recently arrived, to catch your breath, then, we will hold a one versus one fight among the groups, is everyone fine with that?" Nobody protested, so the Hokage made a small smile.

"Good, then, in an hour, after the great Tsunade-sannin will have looked through the wounds of the late arrivals, you'll fight…you're all dismissed for the moment." The Hokage had barely said that, that Naruto puffed out in smoke. Obviously, Minato made no mention of the thing, the incredibly rude thing that the boy had done. He had expected that much: the boy was probably hiding in his room, and would come out only after the time for fighting had begun, in that way, he wouldn't have to explain anything, to any of the Kumo shinobi, and could keep on avoiding the Raikage. Few moments later, Minato returned to his office in the tower, to find Naruto, or a Kage Bunshin of Naruto, waiting for him there.

"What is the Hiraishin, Hokage-sama?" He actually queried, curiosity filling his face.

"Nothing you should know, Naruto." Minato replied, narrowing his eyes, why was the boy here?

"I see," Naruto's eyes went sideways, "What is the Kusanagi?"

"The Kusanagi is the grass cutter sword, known to be able to take on any length and cut through anything, why do you ask that?" the boy was asking him strange things, out of the blue, but as Naruto simply shrugged, Minato felt the need to reprimand him.

As he activated the seal to cut off the boy's chakra supply, the boy fell on the ground, suffering greatly.

"Answer my question, Monster, why do you ask these questions?"

"It was curiosity, Hokage-sama," Naruto's lips quivered, as he whispered back those words, before breathing in air hard, as the Hokage stopped the hand sign, turning to his desk and staring at the pile of work on it.

"A weapon needs not to be curious, now return to your room and stay there until the time comes to be called."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," as Naruto exited the Hokage's door, he breathed slowly, to regain his composure, as he reached his room, where, inside, waiting, was the original one.

"Felt pain?" The clone asked, but as the original shook his head, he whispered, "Good to know," as the clone dispersed, Naruto, the real one, felt the wincing pain enter his brain as a memory, but still, this *was* good to know.

Naruto's eyes narrowed, as he couldn't help but scratch his head. Nobody told him anything about trying and figuring out how the seals worked, but he knew the pain was real, and it would be blinding, if it ever hit him. His clones were, however, made of pure chakra coming from his coils, not those of the fox…so that would mean...

_I can fight *Yamato* with clones, but I need to strike Minato down immediately._

**Never giving up?**

_You really think he's going to let us go?_

**Obviously, he's just the kindest Hokage ever! …You make a fine point. So, when?**

_When chance happens, the right moment will, eventually, happen. Then I'll take it._

**Yeah, like he'd fall on the ground, covered in blood…** The Kyuubi didn't finish his sentence, because, after all, somebody knocked at the door.

Naruto tensed, before slowly moving into the shadows of the room, going on the up above corner of the room, in wait, like a spider in its web, for whoever it was.

"Naruto-kun? Are you there?" It was C.

Naruto's thoughts went on about wherever he should open the door and tell the medic-nin, and sensor, how stupid it was for *Him* to ask the question, he probably knew even where he was, up in the corner of the room, but all that Naruto could do was shake his head, from his point, biting his lips. He had to avoid all contact with Kumo ninjas, that much, the Hokage had ordered.

That much, Monster was going to do.

"Well, anyway…I think I'll be going now, my team is riled up, as Shoko is saying that she will beat your ass off during the tournament, and you know how feisty she can get…" the voice on the other side of the door stood quiet, for a moment, "I don't know why you're doing this, Naruto, but I know, like everyone else knows, that you'll choose Kumo. So don't worry, Naruto…we'll be waiting for you, no matter what you'll be forced to do," and with those words, as Naruto had started crying, holding himself up in the corner of the room, C turned around and left. He had delivered his message, and he had seen the tears, falling down the boy's face, even from beyond the door…The boy's heart was still there, the reason he was doing that was certainly *that man's* fault, but he would snap some necks, eventually, oh yes he would.

Naruto thanked Kami C hadn't barged in, he was the most sensible of them all, but he queried how much he could keep to himself, if C had found out where he was, others would soon follow.

He had to go somewhere else.

He slowly left his room, swiftly entering another one in the nick of time, as he could hear, actually, Shoko's voice already coming, ready to bang at *his* door, and probably even unhinging it.

"He's not here! Damn!" Shoko's rant was actually hearable even from this other room, and so, like that, Naruto actually realized the room wasn't empty.

No, it wasn't. There was someone, more than one people, actually, who were right then staring at him.

Kiba Inuzuka stood his hands in the pocket of his jacket, staring at Naruto, while Shikamaru was sitting on the chair of the room, his mind lost in thoughts, his hands crossed, Neji Hyuga stood there too, eyeing Naruto pretty badly, sitting on a bed was Sakura, while Shino stood politely next to the wall, on the other side. They were all staring at him, actually.

"Did I interrupt a secret chat?" Naruto whispered, and, as Neji was about to rant something, Shikamaru turned his gaze to Naruto.

"You babysat us through the second part…right?" Naruto averted his gaze.

"So it's true, boss. Why did you do that? You said I was strong! How can I prove my strength if…" as Kiba spoke, Shino interrupted, this time, to whisper.

"Order by the Hokage. He can't talk about it." At that, everyone turned his gaze to Shino, staring at him perplexed.

"If you knew, why didn't you say something before, huh?" Neji spat out.

"I didn't know…this," Shino pointed at a small fly that had just deposited itself on his finger, "told me…when you gave me the snake, I gave you the larvae…but you knew that."

Naruto nodded, silently averting his gaze.

"He couldn't tell us, but he had to help us, he was forced to, and, if the Hokage had ordered any of us to do it, we would have been forced to do that too, so, can you blame him?" Sakura spoke, uncertainty in her voice. There was something else, the distinct feeling that even when saving her from that man, that man who had so easily defeated Yagura and Sasuke, and who was about to kill her too, even then, he was acting because he had been ordered to. She needed to know the answer to that question...later, maybe.

"The snakes you gave us…are your summons, like the ones that guard the forest, right?" Naruto nodded, slowly.

"You reverse summoned yourself near them, when they called for you, right?" Naruto smiled, nodding at the Nara's words.

"Dead-on, Shika," he said, "I knew I couldn't hide much from you," as his tone grew softer, he winced, feeling the need to scratch his head once more.

"I understand how it went now: the Hokage forces you to babysit us through the second part, so he can make a good impression of Konoha for next month, but then, how is he going to make us go through to the tournament?" Naruto's eyes turned sorrowful, as he once more looked to the sides, it was Shino, who filled them in, saying the longest speech he had ever said in all of his life.

"It's simple…during the elimination, he will send Yakumo against Saya of Kumo, Neji will face off Yugoro, and Naruto will go against Shoko, then, he'll have Lee go against Gaara, Temari will fight off Ino, while Kankuro will face off me…Sakura will go against the girl named Karin, while the girl named Sumire will face off Sai, Hinata will go against Tenten, Yoroi will face Yagura and Chouji will fight Kiba, and Sasuke will fight Shikamaru...if all goes according to the Hokage's plans, there should be more Konoha's nins at the finals then others, and in the best of chances, there won't be a single Kumo ninja, or Oto ninja, at the finals…" as Shino finished speaking, Naruto sighed, once more.

"Good, but not good enough," Shikamaru replied, "It's too troublesome, so, if I forfeit, before the fight begins, the pairings will have to be changed, and someone will have to fight twice, which would mean probably Naruto, as, out of us all," at that Neji was about to say something, but Shikamaru eyed him badly, and the Hyuga chose silence, "he's the strongest one…so either some of us, except me, forfeit, either the matches will probably see, at the tournament, a majority, if not the complete presence, of only Konoha Nins."

Naruto tensed up, as he could hear the walking of someone he couldn't avoid, he couldn't, and that he had to meet.

"Have to go." He whispered, hastily, opening the door and bolting out, closing it swiftly to stare at Kushina, who, for the noise of the door closing turned to face him, and, seeing him alright, sighed in relief. For one second, however, Naruto saw the face of sheer fear and madness on the woman's face, when, looking at the room *he* was supposed to be him, she hadn't found him there, but had found the door unhinged, probably Shoko's courtesy.

"You're fine, Naru-chan, right?" she queried, worried.

"I'm fine Kushina-sensei…I went to talk with my friends in their rooms," he replied, walking close to Kushina, who eyed him clinically, going as far as checking his temperature, before nodding.

"Was there something you needed?" he asked her, with a worried tone, trying to make it sound like that of a kid who wants to be of help.

"I…no, it's just that I want you to be extra careful, during the fight, okay? You can forfeit whenever you feel you're losing the edge, understood?" Naruto nodded, making a smile.

"No worries Kushina-sensei! I'll win, 'ttebayo!" as that word came out, Kushina's eyes sparkled with joy, while Naruto, mentally, felt the need to bite his tongue off, burn it, and then have someone, anyone, eat the ashes.

"I know you will, now how about we do some training in the Uzumaki chain style, huh?" with that, Naruto followed the woman quietly, he had the body of a fourteen years old, and was forced to *baby* talk like an eleven years old, all because the woman was snappish, at best.

Naruto shivered, recalling the first night, the first *Kaa-san*, the first time he had slept in the bed of the guest room, and the nearly nightmarish night that had followed, with that woman staying on the side of the bed, looking at him from a sit position, eying him intensively for all the night, touching his hair and his cheeks, even his lips. He had felt more violated from simply being seen, that night, than from anything else. He had thought he had been discovered still being awake, as he was actually in a pool of cold sweat a couple of hours, but the woman had paid no attention to nothing, but her *Naru-chan* sleeping in his bed. The next morning, she had decided to make him breakfast, and then, he had been forced to say *Itadakimasu*, to eat while making baby comments on how good *Kaa-san*'s food was, on how nice it was.

Then, without a moment's notice she had taken the scissors and cut his hair... That would have seemed normal, but she had done so in a moment, in a flash, with a stare of pure hatred at the long hair that she had, however, never the less then grabbed, and had gone as far as have covered in wax: to safeguard it. She had loathed it because it resembled the same style as that *Kumo Whore*, and Naruto had no choice but give her reason. Little by little, however, he had managed to convince her that he wasn't going anywhere.

Kage Bunshins, luckily, helped him out, albeit many cried in tears begging him not to send them to her, praying to Kami once they were formed to go elsewhere. It was just…she was scary. She was out of her mind, and he was forced to play along. Not even her teaching him some basic Fuinjutsu seals to store things had eased the feeling of being next to a complete wacko. Not even the fact that it was a complete wacko who, thanks to that slug-sannin, could regenerate herself even when faced with a Ninjato through the damn brain.

He just hoped that three years would be enough to make her *stable* or at least vaguely so.

The hour passed easily, albeit he got more hugs from Kushina than he was comfortable with, which basically meant more than zero, all because he could use the chakra chains like her...

It was then, that the first fight was announced.

*Yakumo Kurama Vs Saya Ichigawa*

Both girls stood at the center of the room, while on both upper sides stood the other students, and their senseis. Down below, but far from the main fighting event, stood both the Kages and the examiner for the event, Hayate.

"If your both ready…begin." With that, Hayate moved out of the way, letting the two girls to face one another.

"You're Naruto's teammate, aren't you?" Saya queried, slowly unknotting her Kimono's sash.

"Yes, why do you ask?" Yakumo replied, narrowing her eyes, while Naruto, up above, couldn't help but chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Kakashi queried, preferring the boy's company to that of his *own* student team.

"Genjutsu users fight through *first move* first win. Surprise is the key to winning." Naruto replied, in a small whisper.

"So? They're both girls, there is no way Yakumo would be embarrassed by Saya getting half naked," Kakashi replied, albeit he *did* peek out of the Icha-Icha book for a moment.

"You should look underneath the underneath, Kakashi-san…" and with that, Naruto grinned widely, as Yakumo, not realizing it, was still *talking* with the other Kunoichi.

"Because I want to know why he changed, in less than one day, and if he won't answer, then I'll beat the answer out of you! Now, admire!" and with that, the Kimono came undone.

To reveal a flat chest and strong legs, both of which covered in strong, coarse hair, and that, coupled with a load of more hair coming from between Saya's legs, made Yakumo screech and close her eyes.

It was enough for Saya to charge through and knock her out a punch straight in the face, with more than enough strength to keep on punching her until Yakumo fell on the ground, and in that moment, Saya grabbed her and threw her against the opposite wall.

"If you won't answer, I'll take the answers from your mind," Saya muttered, as she readied herself to Genjutsu into Yakumo's mind and have the answers, but, at that moment, Yakumo whimpered.

"I forfeit!"

Saya growled, as she slowly let go of the girl, and retied her Kimono, angered at winning without knowing the answer.

"Winner…Saya Ichigawa," Hayate was without words, and, actually, felt the need to turn around and ask permission to use the bathroom, while both the Raikage, C, and Saya's teammates, began laughing out hard. Naruto did his best to repress a chuckle, as Kakashi, instead, felt the need to turn his bleeding eye to Naruto and query…

"What is that thing?"

"A Genjutsu on the body to make her look hairy and male, the shock was enough to distract Yakumo, after all being good at Genjutsus doesn't actually mean you have to discern them so easily," Naruto replied, as he stared at the Hokage, who was visibly furious. With this, in one month, Kumo ninjas would still be in Konoha for the final part, "after all, the simple plans work the best: didn't you know that, Kakashi-sensei?"

*Neji Hyuga Vs Yugoro Shiganori*

Neji stood in the center of the ring, staring at the Kumo ninja, his pearly white eyes looking straight into the other boy's green ones.

"Are you also going to get naked and show…certain stuff?" Neji queried, but Yugoro shook his head.

"Fate has decided our encounter, and fate has decided I will not be as Saya, cruel fate, why are you so cruel?" as he spoke, Neji felt a sort of understanding, with the boy.

"So strange to find another one who, like me, believes in fate. Well, fate has already decided *I* will win this match," as Neji said that, Yugoro looked for a brief moment at the Hyuga, before muttering.

"Are you insane?" everyone, actually, face palmed against the floor.

"What?" Neji spoke back, was the boy mad? He had just…

"Fate is something of the present! Not of the future!" The boy pointed that out, "Fate wants us here now, but the future is not fate! How can you be so blind, even with those eyes of yours!" at that, Neji's face actually contorted into anger.

"How can you say that, huh! Fate has already decided my path! It is my fate to be a servant of the main family, as I was born in the branch one, it is my fate to be chained and used by those who were fated to be my masters!"

Yugoro shook his head, before slowly letting two Katanas appear from both of his sleeves.

"Poor, poor boy, trapped into your own delusions. We are free to choose our destination: fate only works for where we stand at the present, and I will prove it to you," with that, even Neji slid into his Gentle Fist posture, readying himself as Hayate, then, said.

"Begin!"

Neji dashed straight through, aiming straight for the boy's Tenketsu point on the right forearm, but was surprised when the boy tip-tapped away.

"Fighting is like dancing, fate guides my feet!" as Yugoro spun around, letting the katana on his right hand soar over Neji's head, as the Hyuga had ducked, his left hand spun the blade, to intercept Neji's try at pouncing at him with his right arm, but, by doing so, letting Neji's left arm actually hit him on his right forearm.

"Fate has given you crappy feet then!" Neji muttered, as, since Yugoro was now stalling, he proceeded to use one of his techniques.

"Juken: Hakke Rokujūyon Shō!" the next moment, Yugoro felt pain, as sixty-four of his chakra nodes all closed up in rapid succession, bringing him on his knees.

"That…that may be," Yugoro replied, as blood seeped from his mouth, and his Katana was more as a sort of walking crutch than a weapon now, "but what I do with those feet…is my decision alone!" dropping the second Katana, he swiftly two-handed the remaining one, that, making a fell crescent moon swipe, at a fast speed, had its tip stop just inches before Neji's neck.

"I forfeit," Yugoro said, his eyes steeling at the Neji's surprised ones.

"Why? You had the…"

"Chance to kill you? I do not kill pets of others, come back when fate has granted you with insight, and then we will have a match to the death, if you wish to," with that, Yugoro fell on the ground, being swiftly brought away by a couple of medic Nins.

"I'm hitting the idiot when he comes out of there!" Shoko yelled from where she was, raising her fist to the ceiling, as Neji, puzzled, greatly, turned to leave. He had done his due, and now, now he needed time to think.

*Naruto Uzumaki Vs Shoko Fujimoto*

As they both descended into the ring, a female cry of encouragement was heard.

"Go Naruto-kun! You can do it!" said cry was accompanied with murderous glares from the remaining Kumo Nins, as the red-haired woman had been placed on the first list of *hateful* persons, in their mind. She had clearly been a part in it all, kidnapping Naruto first and then doing horrible things to him to brainwash the poor son of the Raikage into a Konoha lover.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, cracking his neck. Shoko had certainly become strong, but just how much?

"You won't talk with your tongue, huh, Naruto?" Shoko muttered, "Then I'll let my staff do the talking!" as the retractable metal staff came into Shoko's hands, Naruto felt the distinct aroma of mud, of dirt, of sand…the staff was probably made of chakra metal, and Shoko was enhancing it with Earth chakra to make it hit harder. It was going to hurt getting hit by that.

"Begin!" Hayate had barely dodged out of the way, that Shoko's staff came down on Naruto's head, or what was meant to be the place where Naruto's head was, as it instead impacted on the ground, making a crater where it hit, and sending shards and pieces of the floor everywhere.

"Ah! Fujimoto-chan can sure pack a punch!" the Raikage exclaimed.

Kushina, meanwhile, had her hands clasped in a prayer that her son would be fine, while, a slightly pouting Anko Mitarashi had just strolled in to move next to Kakashi.

"The Uchiha is a stubborn idiot. He refuses to have the seal under control until he has had his fight."

"I'll try and convince him then," as Kakashi said that, a sparkle and an increase in tension in the air followed by a familiar cackle, made him turn his gaze down to the ring, swiftly looking at Naruto and…

"He can't be using that." Kakashi whispered.

"Isn't that…" Kushina whispered, "Kakashi-san, that's your assassination move!" as Kushina actually exclaimed that, C picked it up and his eyes shot open.

Naruto's right hand had electricity forming on it, as he was staring at Shoko with a murderous glare.

"There's no way…I told him it won't work if the enemy isn't unaware or stopped!" Kakashi's sharingan eyes appeared immediately, to check the situation. What was the boy thinking?

"You think some electricity is going to scare me?" Shoko snarled, "Come on! I'll crush you to paste and hear your reasons, whatever shit they are!" as the girl charged through, Naruto chuckled.

"Naruto's Sen'eijashu: Four points Venus snake trap!" as Shoko was halfway through to reach Naruto, from the ground snakes emerged wielding Ninjatos and kunais, and, after an initial upwards jump, they fell down to impact on the girl's body, before dispersing in a puff of smoke after having done their damage on the girl, wounding her back with the sheer mass, and weight, of the snakes, coupled with the scratches and wounds from the various weapons the snakes held in their mouth.

From the points where the snakes had emerged, four Naruto clones emerged, covered in dirt and dust.

"But…how?" Shoko queried, as Naruto, his hand filled with the Chidori, replied with a grin. Looking towards the Hokage, who nodded, he was curious too.

"When you hit the ground, the cloud of dust prevented you from seeing them. I'm good at digging…and I'm never alone in a fight," with that, Naruto's lightning technique stopped inches away from Shoko's face.

"Surrender," he whispered her, "you cannot beat me," and Shoko, for once, bit her lip, tears falling down her eyes, as one of her friends had actually avoided any words through the fists, resorting to trickery, and underhanded methods, to get his win, even going as far as nearly killing her, menacing to kill her, even.

"I surrender," Shoko whispered, as Hayate nodded, just as the Chidori died down.

Naruto, without another word, walked back towards where Kushina was, who, actually waiting for him, began to fuss over how he had scratches on his face, and hands, and at how he needed to go to the infirmary to get checked.

Naruto groaned, but obeyed. A fussy Kushina was better than a mad one, of that…he was sure.

As Naruto stood in wait, inside the *Medic* wing of the tower, Tsunade looked at the boy while biting her lower lip, trying hard to decide what to do with the brat. He was fine, the boy knew it too, but Kushina was hearing nothing at all.

"I say he got wounded, he might need some band-aids, and some cream, and look at his jacket! Surely he needs bandages, lots of…" as Kushina spoke, Tsunade, in the end, snapped at the woman.

"Kushina!" the red-haired woman jumped in surprise, "I am a legendary medic-nin, and if I say that he's fine, it means he's fine, got it?"

Kushina nodded, still looking worriedly over Naruto like he was about to die of some sort of sickness, because the old hag wasn't treating her son.

"Now, do you mind leaving us alone for a while?" Kushina narrowed her eyes at Tsunade, who rolled them, instead.

"Kushina, who *is* the medic in here?"

"You are…fine," as the woman stormed out, still every five second turning around, to make sure the old hag wasn't eating her son alive, she finally left the room, closing the door, but, as Tsunade did the signs for the privacy seals, probably wasn't going to stay outside much, if she couldn't eavesdrop.

"Whoever taught you was good, brat," Tsunade said, turning to the boy, "I say he was decent, not legendary, but decent, at being a medic-nin. Some corpses you left had died of shock, not of blood loss or of you toying with their organs…which you then put back in place. Actually, your murder count is less than five shinobis, all in all, of which three are the Anbus who tried to capture you, one is Kushina, and the last is the Karusa Haruno, the ex-owner of the orphanage. The others are shock related, mostly."

Naruto nodded silently, as Tsunade bit her lip once more.

"Why the old woman? She was barely hanging on."

"Monster was chained for four years, hit every day, suffered every day, brought outside to be hit more, given hope to just have it taken away... All that pain, Naruto had to give it back to her," Naruto's eyes narrowed, "she deserved no peace in her final moments, and I did what had to be done, what I did to her was justice, I gave justice in a city that had none before me."

Tsunade's eyes narrowed, before sighing.

"The bad thing is that you actually believe you brought justice, but you also killed civilians, half-way, and that…"

"No," Naruto replied, shaking his head, "Kabuto always told me they had committed sins, horrible sins, but had never been caught...I found proof of their actions in every room, and then I struck them down."

"Some of that had been planted, you know?" as Tsunade whispered that, Naruto's eyes bulged, before his head shook.

"No, I didn't. What does it change, however?"

"Nothing, and…"

"You activated the privacy seals!" Kushina ranted, as she re-entered her room, "What did you do to my…"

"Kaa-san, please…" Naruto's eyes turned watery, "can't you trust Tsunade-basan, for me?"

"I…I think I can…I'm sorry," Kushina muttered, averting her gaze and, embarrassed, leaving the room once more.

"You're good." Tsunade muttered, surprised.

"She's going psycho, I tell you," Naruto whispered, "I'll never leave Konoha with her like that, but there's something urgent I need to tell you, I didn't even tell the fourth, because he didn't ask."

Tsunade nodded, as Naruto, slowly, explained his meeting in the forest with Orochimaru.

Her eyes bulged, before coming to understand, and, frowning a bit, she sighed.

"Well…meeting Orochimaru is one thing, belittling him is pure idiocy."

"I'm a dead man walking, I know," Naruto replied, "but at least, he knows where I am...and who I am…"

Tsunade's eyes narrowed, was the boy actually intending that, if Orochimaru wished to kill him, he'd go down while having crossfire casualties?

"You want to take Kushina down with you, boy?"

"Tsunade-sannin…If I die, it's because they brought me in Konoha. Even in death, I still want justice," with that, Naruto got up, moving towards the door, "by the way: one of my friends would like to learn Medical Ninjutsu, I'm going to ask Rin about it, but if you ever think you'd like another apprentice…"

"I don't take apprentices, boy," Tsunade replied with an angry stare.

"Thought so, too old to move around to teach," with that, Naruto exited, barely ducking a set of Senbon needles that impacted against the door's frame.

Kushina, obviously, stood outside, ruffling his hair before going back to watch the remaining matches.

That's when Lee crossed their path towards Tsunade's wing, he was on a stretcher, and Maito Gai was running alongside them, worried.

"Lee, you have to pull through! YOSH! YOUTH POWER!" as soon as Gai had said that, Naruto had twitched, clenching his fists...just what had happened during the green dressed boy's fight to require immediate attention? Even Shoko had stood up, letting C-san heal her, without having to go to Tsunade.

"Gai-sensei?" Naruto queried, once Lee had entered Tsunade's *office* and the sensei had been thrown out. Kushina had wrapped her hands on Naruto's shoulders, in a kind effort of comforting the boy who, in her opinion, was worried for one of his friends.

"Naruto-kun…Gaara did a number on Lee…he nearly killed him, smashed his legs and arms, used the sand to crush his bones…he might…he might not be able to be a ninja anymore," as one of the first two Konoha ninja that Naruto, actually, befriended, said those words in a sad tone, Naruto's eyes narrowed, as he turned around to stare at the end of hallway.

"Then someone is going to pay for harming my Bro…and he will pay in blood." With a hiss, Naruto moved, stomping on the ground, swiftly followed by a worried Kushina, just in time to reach the upper level of the arena once more, and see the end of Temari and Ino's fight, where the weak, frail, and pitiful Yamanaka, fan girl of Uchiha Sasuke, fell to the might of the Suna Kunoichi and her giant metal fan.

_Took too much time…didn't see what techniques Gaara used, and the girl…_

**She seems a wind element user.**

_I'll need Yoru to defeat her. Wind *is* a bit rusty for me right now._

**You *are* rusty in a lot of things since recently.**

_I'll bath in oil._

**I'm always bathed…really, why a boiler room? Why must I be chained in the depth of a boiler room?**

_Can't change what I can't control._

**It's your mindscape…come on, try and be more…imaginative.**

_Hum…I know!_

A couple of seconds later, a low growl was heard into the back of Naruto's mind.

**You painted the walls PINK and with Ponies! **

_What? You said you wanted a pony!_

**TO EAT.**

_Oh…_

As the Kyuubi growled in silence, Naruto's eyes narrowed at the next fight, as the Suna Nin *Kankuro* was going against Shino.

"Go Shino! Show him who's stronger!" Naruto actually yelled, raising his fist in the air, to encourage his friend, and because if he didn't he was sure Kushina wouldn't let go of his shoulders, thinking he was still saddened and grieving for Lee. He wouldn't cry for the spandex-green dressed boy: He'd fight Gaara and teach him a lesson.

*Kankuro Vs Shino*

"You're a friend of the boy?" Kankuro muttered.

"Yes," Shino replied, stretching his arms.

"Gaara will kill him, you know?" the boy added, in a low whisper, glad that Gaara, having sated his blood thirst for the moment, had left the area.

"He can try," Shino replied, "but he won't manage," as he added that, Hayate gave the starting signal, as bugs dashed forward aiming at Kankuro, who, with aplomb, opened his mouth, to release a sort of flamethrower like mechanical contraption that burned the cloud of insects to a light crisp, burning the first cloud of insects, and then dashing off, his hands splitting open to reveal that, in truth, it had been a puppet, and charging straight ahead at the bug-boy, piercing through his heart.

Only for Shino to dissolve in a mass of twirling bugs, as the real one stood behind the bug-clone that engulfed the puppet, preventing it from moving.

"Why attack directly, if you can have clones do it?" Shino muttered, as from the bundle of clothes that had been dropped on the ground, the real Kankuro emerged, growling slightly as he tried to reconnect his chakra strings towards the puppet, only to have them eaten.

"Puppet master without a puppet: where does that leave you?" Shino queried, as he slowly moved to the side of Kankuro, a kunai in his hand.

"…with a winning ace," as Kankuro grinned, a stronger than normal chakra string spun from his finger, activating the mechanism on the puppet's head, and sending it, bugs included, to attack Shino from the back, opening the puppet's head mouth to reveal a spike, that Shino, albeit turning around, couldn't completely dodge, and getting, by consequence, hit on the shoulder, as it impaled him making him gasp in pain.

"The blade is poisonous, you better surrender and go get treated immediately…if you want to live, that is."

Shino's right hand clenched, as he still had control of the fight, a head was just that, a head. There were no other weapons, them why were his legs wobbling, as the blood had started to stick to his coat? It was…

"I forfeit!" Shino exclaimed, as the puppet's head detached itself, while the bugs returned to the Aburame, to try and close the wound.

Shino stumbled, before a couple of medic-nin came to bring him straight off to Tsunade, on a stretcher.

Kankuro sighed in relief: He hadn't lost. If he had lost in the preliminaries, who cared about the title, his brother would have killed him for being weak!

Naruto stared at the scene from the balcony, not saying a single word, but turning his gaze to Shikamaru, who narrowed his eyes back at the blond haired boy, before shrugging.

_Shino would have never been so reckless. _

**Maybe you just didn't know him well enough.**

_He lost on purpose, but why?_

**Maybe he felt that he was cheating in the exam, and his self-righteousness decided he should fail here?**

_It could be…but still._

**Just ask him when this is over.**

_Will do._

With that, Naruto's gaze turned to where two Kunoichis, one red fiery headed one and one pink-haired one stood, ready to battle.

*Karin Uzumaki Vs Sakura Haruno*

"Kushina-sensei…is she another relative?" Naruto queried, curious for the surname used, to Kushina, who, pondering for a moment, nodded.

"Probably could be. The Uzumaki clan distanced itself and scattered through the various countries after the destruction of the secret village of the land of whirlpools, so it could possibly be…we could invite her over ramen, if she stays in Konoha long enough." As Kushina's voice trailed off, her mind clicked with the possibility of having some relative…red hair, she looked a bit like Katsumi-chan too actually, maybe she could…no, Kushina shook her head, Katsumi was somewhere, in the world, clinging to life, desperately trying to come back home, and she was a bad mother for even thinking something as stupid as her being someone else.

Sakura kind of wondered why she was there after all: she had survived thanks to her teammates, not because of her own strength. She should have just forfeited, gone back home, and found a husband to marry, a rich one. But then again, she had felt the strength in Naruto's hands, his ease, his gentleness, and she had realized that she couldn't, simply, eat her words up. She was going to get strong, maybe she would lose, that day, maybe even tomorrow, but one day, she'd get the strength to win against everyone, and anyone…and stand straight next to Naruto, who collected and calm, was probably going to become one of the strongest ninjas of Konoha.

Sakura stood in the academy Taijutsu stance, straight in front of the other girl, who simply smiled, before Hayate gave the go.

The next moment, Senbon needles pierced through Sakura's shoulder, and, without so much of a fuss, the pink haired girl fell to the side, her sight fazing. She had hoped she could have put up a fight, something at least worthy of being called a fight, but the red haired girl's attack…had been precise, fast, maybe too fast. Senbon needles were fast weapons, not much lethal, but fast, usually coated in poisons, that was why they were also the favorite weapons of hunter Nins: Imbued with toxins, quiet kills were easy to make.

"Only that…damn…I hoped for some entertainment!" it was all the Konoha's kunoichi heard, before closing her eyes to the darkness, silently cursing her own weakness.

Karin kept a bored look, as she strolled back up to rejoin her teammates, some fights, just seemed to be used to bash onto the Konoha's idiots. Like that blond-haired girl, Ino, two hits of the giant fan, and she couldn't even use the Yamanaka jutsu, all because she hadn't accounted for the target *moving*.

Still, this Kunoichi here…no style, no peculiarity, nothing, not even Genjutsu, it wasn't a fight, at all, she couldn't even see the senbon needles attacking her.

"I've schooled a kid, I suppose," Karin muttered, as she got back in the middle between Yoroi and Sumire, the blue-haired girl chuckling, as she slowly descended, after all, it was her turn, next.

*Sumire Vs Sai *

Sumire stood, raising her Ninjato in her right hand, and staring at the boy who was Naruto's teammate. She had to at least defeat him, there, to be able to somehow take on her Oniisan and bring him to safety. She narrowed her eyes, as, just as Hayate stated the *Begin!* sentence, she dashed out with her Ninjato enhanced with wind chakra.

"Shinkūken!" Sumire yelled, as the air blade dashed from her Ninjato against Sai's scroll, a feat that would have made any normal ninja die by blood loss, being cut through the scroll by the compressed, and highly deadly, air blade. Sai, however, rolled to the side while still drawing, summoning thus an ink lion, who pounced at the girl, that, without wasting time, raised her two fingers at it, while the lion was in mid-air for the pounce, and yelled.

"Kaze no Yaiba!" that was an A-level technique that Orochimaru had entrusted her, and she was making him proud every moment she fought and won. Never mind the excess in chakra poured in the technique, that destroyed the ink lion, and sent Sai to hit against the wall on the other side, a drill-like wound on his chest. She had won. She was strong. Her Oniisan was closer by the second.

"Winner, Sumire. Bring a stretcher!"

Naruto's eyes narrowed, as a small snake reached his ear, to start hissing some words.

They bulged, for a moment, before returning to normality. He didn't know wherever laughing or not was the case, nor wherever he should mention such interesting piece of information, or not, to the Hokage.

However, he could use that too.

There were so many things he could use now…he just needed to come up with a battle plan.

*Hinata Hyuga Vs TenTen*

Hinata was biting her lower lip, trying to think of a good reason why not to immediately forfeit. She came up with the sole and obvious reason that she could think of: She was the main heiress of the Hyuga clan main family, and she was timid, introverted, and completely shy. There was no way, at all, that she was going to win against Tenten, a master long-range fighter, unless she got in close, but by doing that, she'd subject herself to the risk of being wounded, and she didn't want that. Everything had been fine till then, so why did Shino get impaled? Why wasn't he more careful about it? The more she thought about it the less she understood it. He could have dodged it: the head charge was slow to her eyes! Yet he hadn't, and now…now she was going to let Kiba go on alone, as she was sure Kiba was going to win, if Chouji didn't outright forfeit. She could try however she could try to win against Tenten.

Hayate gave the start, and the next moment, Tenten, obviously, jumped backwards, while Hinata dashed forward, she had to close the distance!

A pity Tenten had thought about that, a year of experience more than the young Hyuga made her capable of working on knowledge acquire even on the field. So, as the explosive tags set off where she had been a moment before, and that she had placed in a second, Hinata had to jump back. She could have charged through, trying to deactivate them with another chakra impulse, or with the Juken, but she had been scared of being hurt, she hated being hurt.

That was why she jumped backwards. Doing that, she realized, was the beginning of the real pain.

Volleys of Kunais dashed forward, sprung from the scrolls that Tenten possessed, as Kamas attached to flying sickles tore through the smoke of the exploded tags, and Hinata, for all her Byakugan, could see many of them, but could dodge only a few. She was afraid, afraid of the pointy tips of the Kunais, the searing blades, the sickening swings, she was afraid, for her own life, and as she got on her knees, she burst into tears, forfeiting the match.

Tenten had even a soft gaze, for the young Hyuga girl, she just needed some sort of backbone, but as Hayate declared Tenten the winner, and she returned next to Neji, who had watched the match, she gave one final glance at Hinata, who had been helped up Kiba, who was her teammate, and she was carried in the infirmary. Tenten would have wanted to point out how she had been skilled in deflecting some of her most harmful attacks, wherever by luck or skill, but Neji scowled at her, preventing her from. To a main branch family, the feeling of winning over a main branch one was by far something worthy of being remembered. Neji was where Hinata would never be, and that…that made the Hyuga boy gloat. Even though the words of the robe dressed ninja still echoed in his ears.

*Yoroi Vs Yagura*

"Sucks to be you!" Yoroi said, as he descended into the arena, well, his two teammates had won, so he had to win too, obviously. He just had to absorb the boy's chakra, and it would be over, after all.

"I don't think that's how you should greet your adversary. It is not youthful," Yagura spoke, politely, as he took a fighting stance.

"YOSH! YAGURA-KUN! LET THE FIRE OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHTLY TODAY!" the yell echoed from both Gai, who had realized that moping outside Tsunade's door wasn't going to help Lee, and Naruto, who had obviously taken cue to help get a victory in for Konoha, make Kushina nervous but happy, and make Kakashi scowl some more.

"YOSH!" Yagura yelled back, his eyes sparkling with the fiery flame of Konoha's will of fire.

"Begin…" Hayate said, removing himself from the veritable tornado of Yagura, who, weights dropped, had charged straight through with pure speed and strength.

"This was just like Gaara's and Lee's fight," Kakashi muttered, slightly annoyed, to Naruto who was watching how Yoroi had no way to catch Yagura into a hold, a feat he was trying for a while, his hands eerily being coated in chakra, "only Gaara had this shield of sand that floated around, completely blocking any of Lee's attacks, until he used that utterly self-destructing move Gai taught him, to defeat the Suna ninja…but Gaara switched with a sand clone halfway through, and then, with Lee completely tired out, Gaara used the sand to crush his limbs…Gai intervened before he could too far, however…" Naruto silently nodded, at the information. He stared as Yoroi's underestimating the strength of pure Taijutsu brought his own demise, as the Oto-Nin fell down. Gai had told that sentence to him and Lee once, and he still recalled it.

"_Taijutsu is easy to pick up, but difficult to master." _The meaning was simple. Dedication decided who was strong and who was not, as Yagura's right jab hit straight to its target, Yoroi fell to the ground, groaning in pain, as all his bones had been neatly broken.

"I am not as kind as Lee-kun," Yagura spoke, "Where I hit, I break." Something that Naruto could go along with, actually.

Yoroi fell to a sharp hit on the back, and stayed down, so, Hayate declared Yagura the winner.

*Chouji Vs Kiba*

Chouji, eating chips, stared at Kiba, who rolled his eyes over.

"Please…don't," Kiba whined, as Hayate raised an eyebrow, before receiving a prompt reply.

"I forfeit the match!" Chouji replied, as Kiba growled.

"I want to hit something! Damn! It's been five days since I last hit something! Damn it, Chouji!" Kiba, exasperated, raised his hands in the air and walked out of the ring, as Chouji, eating chips, left too.

Minato couldn't help but chuckle.

"Well, we do have some Genins like that," the Hokage scratched the back of his head, a motion that the Raikage hadn't missed: it was the same that Naruto every now and then displayed, were there fleas in Konoha?

*Sasuke Vs Shikamaru*

Shikamaru stood in the arena, waiting. It was troublesome, much so because the Uchiha was late, and when he arrived, he barely held himself on his feet, holding with his left hand something on his right side of the neck.

It was a drag, because he didn't want to fight.

It was even more troublesome, because he was valuing the possibility that he could, actually, win this. He could, but he didn't want to drag this out any longer. It was just…getting on his nerves.

"Begin!" Sasuke threw two kunais from his pouch with his right hand, while he dashed forward. Maybe he had faked being all that winded up from the pain in the neck?

In any case, Shikamaru got on his knees, doing the hand symbol belonging to the Nara clan, and as the shadow darted forward, against the charging Uchiha, both stood frozen in their position.

"Kagemane no Jutsu" the shadow imitation technique, the secret jutsu of the Nara clan, able to make the enemy repeat one's own movements, and that, to the smart ninjas of said clan, was both a defensive ability and an offensive one, hit Sasuke straight on.

Both the Nara and the Uchiha were now at a stand-off. The Uchiha had no way to move, but neither did Shikamaru. That was until Shikamaru took out from behind his back some kunais. Sasuke imitated his movement, but on his back, he didn't have the kunai pouch, so he just made the same movements, but couldn't find any weapon, at all. His eyes would have bulged in surprise, he was going to lose.

Again, he was going to lose. Against Nara, Shikamaru Nara, the laziest ninja of Konoha. That…That shouldn't have been possible! He wanted power! He needed power! He couldn't be defeated right there, right then, he needed to win! His sharingan needed to activate, it had to: it was his bloodline, his duty, his right!

Kami works in mysterious ways, as Sasuke's stress level increased, just as Shikamaru finished aiming his kunai, the world became slower.

Sasuke's eyes turned red, as, staring at Shikamaru, the Nara boy stood silent.

Using chakra hurt, the seal on his shoulder searing his whole body with pain, like liquid fire, but with him at his wits end, he could do but one thing.

Try a Genjutsu and hope it would work.

Shikamaru dropped the shadow imitating technique, as Sasuke charged at him, he simply stood still, a bit dozy, but as he dispelled the Genjutsu he had been put in, it was already too late, the Uchiha's fist connected with the side of his jaw, sending him sprawling on the ground, knocked out cold, or too tired to stand up again.

Hayate waited ten seconds, in silence, before declaring Sasuke the winner, at which point Shikamaru stood up, and slowly made his way towards Naruto.

Naruto watched the Nara arrive with curiosity, as he patted the blond-haired boy on the shoulder, and whispered.

"He's got the sharingan, now," afterwards, the Nara went to the infirmary, he wanted to see how Ino was, after all, and to have his jaw looked at.

*Afterwards*

The remaining nine winners stood in front of the Hokage, in his office in the city of Konoha, who, with a forced smile to hide his displeasure at not having only Konoha Nins at the tournament, said, keeping his arms wide in a sort of welcoming attitude.

"Well! I am sure you are going to make your villages proud in the upcoming month, when the tournament will begin. The Kumogakure ninjas, considering the considerable distance between our villages, are gladly invited to remain for the month, and such kindness extends thus also to the Otogakure ninjas, wherever you remain, or not, it is up to you," with those words, Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage, smiled gently, before adding, "you can query your senseis, and decide the best course of action, obviously, to the foreign shinobis, you will still be put under surveillance by Anbus, should you choose to stay."

Naruto stared with his best dead-eye expression at Sumire's face. He had to give points to the Otogakure country: they truly knew how to change a face. Hadn't Yoru been Yoru, and thus able to recognize by a whiff, plus scent, plus vibrations, plus heartbeat, plus the one of the eye lenses falling, plus the style and the Kage Bunshin use, he wouldn't have believed it. Instead, it had turned out the truth.

Probably, and that was his idea, the girl had been swept away by the current, had lost her memory, and somebody had taken her in, in Oto, and then she had undergone such changes for some reason, consciously or not, being forced by the Otogakure Kage or not…So much for Konoha's Anbu special division! Sheesh, his snakes had done a better job than all of them put together. When he got back to Kumo, he was going to institute the Snake-Nin Secret department for information gathering and retrieval. He had to find some sort of catchy name, however, to describe it better. Like…HISS? Heroic Intelligence Survey Snakes? Well, he'd think about that later on, now he had other things in his mind, to do. Firstly, find out why Orochimaru had assaulted Sakura's team, and by the fact that he had seen Sasuke holding the side of his shoulder, he had half an idea for that too.

But before anything else, he had to get this month out of the way.

**Please, not again with the *Enemy territory* crap.**

_I've been in that mode, and Yoru has been wounded, Lee has been wounded and even with the news I heard I'm still in one piece. So yes, I'll keep being in enemy territory. It works in keeping me and my friends alive, so I'll stay in this mode for as long as it takes._

"You may answer me later, you are all dismissed, except you, Naruto-kun, I require you to stay for a while." Naruto, slowly, waited until the last of the Genins who had passed the preliminary had left, and then got into a kneeling position.

"Hokage-sama," he whispered, as he saw the Hokage activate the privacy seals.

"I've been thinking, for a while, about doing something concerning the civilian's rash attitude in defying my will, and also, about Root, after all, it's Danzo who funds it, and I do not like having something that powerful not within my control," Minato spoke quietly, eying Naruto.

"I understand: what do you wish of me?"

"You will begin training in Root, for this month, spending time later on with your mother, just to give you a taste of what awaits you…and I wish to have your summon scrolls under grasp," at that, Naruto grimaced, before whispering.

"That is impossible, Hokage-sama."

"Why would that be, Monster?" Minato replied, narrowing his eyes.

"I did more than hiding it, Hokage-sama: I made it ungraspable, even by my hands." Naruto stated, easily.

"Oh? And where would you have put it, Naruto?" To that, Naruto grinned.

"Inside the Kyuubi's seal, Hokage-sama," and to that, Minato stared in shock at the boy's words.

Somewhere, deep in Naruto's mindscape, which had at least far less water than normal, courtesy of the brat, the Kyuubi stared at the seal of the fourth, and at the summoning scroll, a jet black scroll which resembled scales, positioned there, with the chains of the Uzumaki family rattling against it, protecting it, guarding it, even from him.

"But you said to…you lied to Tsunade and Jiraiya." Minato whispered.

"No, they can *see* it, they cannot touch it. Or take it, without freeing the Kyuubi."

"Which means you could free the Kyuubi, by taking it away, at a moment's notice?" Minato paled.

"I said it's out of *my* grasp, I cannot…and even if I could, I am not suicidal, Hokage-sama: a dead weapon serves no master."

Minato's eyes narrowed even more, either the boy *was* a born actor, and liar, either he was one of the most cunning Ninjas he had ever met, and that…that truly made him *Another Orochimaru*. Only, this one had a soul, and a liking to Kumo. He had to inquire how he had managed the feat however, how could he seal within himself the summoning scroll? The answer dawned into his brain in less than a second. Kushina Uzumaki was a Fuinjutsu master, and in her state, all Naruto needed were puppy eyes and a pretty please.

"Root training will make you even better. You are to become Konoha's perfect weapon, after all," and, for a split second, an old war hawk somewhere in Konoha actually felt the need to bring his left fist slightly up in the air, while looking at the sky, and whisper to Kami how good it felt to be right after decades of being called a lunatic patriot.

Naruto simply said nothing, so the Hokage continued.

"Anyway, you have done progresses with Kushina-hime, and with that, I am pleased, so pleased, in fact, that I have decided that you may keep doing your medic-nin lessons with Rin-san, while at the same time doing Root training, and taking care of Kushina,"

_Three hours of sleep mode, engaging._

**Don't you dare! Oh no, not the crazy lunatic, I refuse!**

_I was just messing with you. Though *I* think I'll have to go to Root clean of stuff._

**Yeah, that would be better.**

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Naruto replied.

"But for today, you are free to go around the city…" Naruto tensed, hoping he would be… "And in the forest of death, which I'm sure is where you will be till late afternoon…dismissed"

As the Hokage deactivated the privacy seals, Naruto Shunshin'd away, directing his gaze towards the Namikaze mansion, but stopping, short of entering from the window, as he saw Kushina, in his bedroom, neatly folding his clothes and putting them in the drawers. She even seemed like a normal, caring mother, in that moment, humming gently a nice tune, something concerning ramen; she looked normal, until she got sight of something that disturbed her, a snake earring, lying on his desk.

The same one that pink-haired Kunoichi had touched on her ear, when she was fighting that other red-haired Uzumaki.

It meant only one thing: her son was having a secret girlfriend, and wasn't telling his family about it.

This wasn't going to stand.

Her chains rattled slowly appearing on her back, as Naruto, from the window, jumped swiftly down to the door, and rang the bell thrice, the sign that it was him, at the door.

He heard the swift footsteps of Kushina, getting to the door, he realized she was breathing hard, trying to control herself, which, maybe, was a good idea, and then, as the door opened, he realized that it had become her breathing, a harsh, guttural breathing, as the seals on her right bandaged hand began to glow red jut so slightly. Her eyes were bloodshot in anger, as she couldn't believe *her* Naru-chan, hers, and no-one else, was having an affair with someone without asking for his parent's consent...it was improper!

"Kaa-san? I'm home," Naruto whispered, worried, as Kushina made a step backwards, no, her Naru-chan had an explanation, certainly.

"Naru-chan…welcome home." As the red-haired woman let the boy in, she slowly closed the door behind, making a light coughing sound, to which, Naruto turned around.

"Yes, Kaa-san?"

"I saw you had a green earring on your desk…you want to have your ears pierced?" as she queried that, she actually materialized a thin chakra chain, she could do that, maybe it was that and not a gift for the pink-haired whore, or maybe it was both, and so she could kill the pink-haired whore and shove the nail of her coffin.

"No, Kaa-san…Otou-san asked me to find a way to help the other Konoha's Nins, and since I love Konoha a lot, I used those as trackers and pheromones!" Naruto replied smiling, as Kushina's chains dispersed, "so, with that, they had an easier time in the forest of death. I gave one per team, and made them in earring form! The last one was for you, Kaa-san, I was sure it was going to suit your beautiful red hair!"

**Kill me. Kill me. Kill me. Kill ME.**

_Shut up, I'm the one who has to wash his tongue for hours, to get rid of this!_

Kushina's face turned gentle, and she brought a hand in front of her mouth…how stupid she had been, her Naru-chan wasn't an improper son who needed to be punished, he was a charming young growing boy who did what his parents told him to. How lucky she was! She giggled at the compliment, and then decided to try on the snake earring, why not? It actually came easy to attach.

"Neh, Naru-chan, how do I look now?" as she said that with a flirting tone, Naruto did all he could to avoid, actually, rolling his eyes over.

"It suits you Kaa-san! I'm going to train in the forest, later on…can I?" Naruto said, with a whiny tone. An eleven year old whiny tone that made his guts knit in disgust.

Kushina thought about it, but then nodded, with a smile.

"Come back before sunset, Naru-chan, got it?" as Naruto nodded, making a smile and hugging Kushina tightly, like any children would his mother, Kushina slowly ruffled Naruto's head.

Her Naru-chan was really a kind, nice, and gentle boy, she knew he would come to love her and would realize his faults. She was sure he'd become the greatest Konoha-Nin in the history of Konoha, still, maybe, she should find some friends of his age for him? Going to train in the forest alone certainly didn't leave him much time to make friends…

Naruto interrupted the hug slowly, before dashing off to his room, slowly rolling under his bed, where a storage seal was, and activating it to remove a small orange covered book. It had been three days since he had last read the chapter concerning the Sensei and the Pink-haired girl being in a dead-lock of kisses.

Hiding it inside his jacket, he rolled out, grabbing the Wolf-mask of Anbu divisions, and dashing out from the front door, with a light backpack on his shoulders.

"I'm off Kaa-san!"

"See you later, Naru-chan!"

With that, Naruto finally exited the Namikaze mansion, which he loathed like it was hell on earth, and headed straight ahead towards the forest of death.

He just hoped Kuro was keeping his cool, he wasn't a very protective father, at all, but still, Yoru *was* his first-born. He swiftly entered the forest of Death, creating a large amount of clones to work on *team exercises*, and, as Yamato was perched atop a tree, the man didn't realize that, out of a hundred clones…one had subtly disappeared into nothingness while scaling a tree.

*Kuro*

"So, now that you have tried it on your scales, you understand the stupidity of doing *that* Taijutsu move? You expose your soft belly to the enemy counter, and that then leads to this stupidity!" Kuro hissed, staring with his narrowed blue eyes at Yoru, who was laying, his stomach upwards, but already bandaged and closed, with his red eyes back at the enormous size of his father's blue eyes.

"I thought no Genin would be able to counter that fast!" He replied, "How could I know they were Chuunin material?"

"Maybe their ease in defeating the Suna Nins? You know we can transfer information easily with a few hisses, you could have asked. You got lucky Scaly-chan was there for support." Kuro muttered, before turning his gaze towards the scale-rock encrusted anaconda, who hissed to him something.

"Yes, he'll be fine," Kuro replied, as Scaly nodded, "Now, as for our *guests*, from Oto…" as Kuro turned his head, to the other side of the cave, from enormous round tunnels other snakes, of the same sheer size of Slithery, emerged, hissing at their leader.

"Still not talking? Anko-san taught us a great deal, and they still aren't ready to talk? Well…" another set of hisses, from down below, forced Kuro to lower his head.

"The boss is coming around, so he'll take care of that," Kuro chuckled, "and then, we'll have information on Otogakure. Thank Kami that team was harassing the *bastard* one, so they stayed out of the tower's area for a long while…"

"Those Oto-nins are hiding something pops, I'm sure of it," Yoru muttered.

"We'll find out, how are the TAILS going right now?" Kuro queried, turning his gaze to his son, who replied after a moment.

"The Trained Assault Interception Logistic Snakes units? Coming along well, I'd say we've got to hand it down to Epsilon: he knows how to get stuff done." Yoru said, with a wide grin.

"Yeah, I'm starting to think he's a completely different person from the Boss, but he *is* a shadow clone, I wonder how the information transfer is going to go about…it's been a month already since Epsilon has been around. I'm afraid doing this stuff repeatedly is going to harm his brain."

"All I get are headaches, Kuro, you know it," Naruto replied, entering the cave with a sigh, while holding Icha-Icha, having finally gone past that damn chapter, "what's this about an Oto team I need to torture though?"

"Keen earing as always boss," Yoru chuckled, as Naruto slowly jumped on one of Kuro's recoiled extremities, before starting to walk upwards, "Slithery-kun and Jumpy-chan captured the team that was harassing the *bastard*'s one, they used some strange vibrations and noises and Genjutsus, so we pounded them from the back and brought them here, Epsilon took care of disarming them, he was quite thorough with it…and we *are* keeping guards on them. They did say something funny though, seeing us."

"Which is why we are keeping them here," Kuro replied, "they queried if *Orochimaru-sama* was punishing them for their failures."

Naruto's eyes narrowed, as he put away Icha-Icha…a pity, he was at the climax scene, where the Sensei was discovered by the student's fiancé, and forced into a threesome of epic proportions with various kinks.

"Here I was thinking I could get some sleep…they are a liability. I'll have to work on them with Epsilon."

Another Naruto, dressed in a long white lab-coat jacket, entered the giant central cave-room from one of the tunnels, waving at his boss, as a wriggling mass of small snakes made their way towards the central area.

"The new eggs have hatched! We've got something you'd like to see boss!"

"Aw…new younglings!" Kuro cued, hissing to the small little snakes which went for the bits and scraps of meat they could find scattered in the cave's grounds.

"And my father's brain goes mushy whenever he sees younglings," Yoru muttered, rolling his eyes over.

"What is it, Omega?" Naruto queried, jumping next to his clone, who beckoned him to follow.

Truly, every month, dispersing the clones was a headache, but one he was willing to suffer, before creating them again. He was sure some sort of split personality disorder was going to take place, eventually, but till then…it was all to return to Kumo.

"We've got two special ones in this batch. A two headed snake, and a … well, you'll see," as Omega opened the door to the snake's nursery, Naruto stared at two small *cribs* made out of stone, where in one, a two headed snake stood silently chewing a dead mouse, with both of his heads, looking up adorably with his four wide green eyes, while in the other crib…

"He's white…" Naruto whispered, looking at the Shiro duplicate, who stared at him with his own red eyes.

"Yeah, when I saw him I nearly felt the need to cry," Omega replied, shaking his head, "well, I'm sure we can have Twin-kun become bigger and Shiro-chan,"

"It's a girl?" Naruto queried, gently scratching the snakes head, who actually hissed in pleasure.

"Yep, a girl," Omega replied, before continuing, "well, Shiro-chan can become another support snake, once we find out if she has any abilities or speech capacity," as he finished speaking that, Naruto turned, albeit this time slowly because he *actually* didn't want to let go of the snake's touch, and nodded to Omega.

"I'll go question our *guests* then," with that, he moved towards the area Anko-Oneechan would have been proud to see...but that she would never, ever, see.

_I know what I'm doing is wrong…but someone needs to do it._

**I thought I told you…there is no *right* or *wrong* in the world. There are those who win, and those who die. Those who are strong, and are right, and those who are weak, and are wrong. Who wins chooses the truth, the right, the good. The losers are always the evildoers...not because they are evil, but because every winner wishes them to be seen like that.**

_I still don't like torturing people. _

The Kyuubi slightly growled, in her cage, before musing out a thought.

**Then why keeping me caged? Free me! It's torture alright!**

_When doing so won't kill me, I will…I promised you that._

**Yeah, our deal, say it with the seal removed then.**

_Not a chance in hell, Kyuubi-chan, I know I cannot trust you, but that…that per se is something I'm enjoying. I know where You stand, Kyuubi-chan, I know what you are and what you want. I know you. You don't know it, but you're probably the only reason I'm still sane…so…I'll let you go, I made a deal, when the time will come, but I should thank you…because I know I can Distrust you._

**Usually one would go the other way, you know boy? "I trust you, Kyuubi-chan!" damn it.** The Kyuubi growled slightly, in her cage, before keeping quiet.

Naruto chuckled to himself, as he pushed open the door to the *Interrogation* area, to find the prisoners gagged, naked and thoroughly checked for any weapons. One of them had really horrible wounds on most of his body, product of a fiery fire, probably, the other had two arms with strange elongated holes in them, two metallic tubes, used to produce noise, had been removed, as probably those were his weapons, the third was a woman, who she too had been tied, and had been both mouth gagged and blind folded.

He sighed…he hated this type of work.

*Somewhere else*

"Hokage-sama, all teams were found, out of twenty-seven teams, only nine reached the tower, and we have deaths among a Suna-nins squad, done by use of poison, slashing and Chakra exhaustion, a Konoha Genin squad done by crushing earth Jutsus, probably, and a missing squad of the Otogakure ninjas, the rest have been found in a neat pile on a plateau in the forest, with a note," The Anbu avoided to report it was big, yellow and orange, with a sort of exclamation point on it, "stating how they were *Losers*, they all seemed paralyzed by some sort of poison, and some were highly dehydrated, having probably been there for a while. We are now in the process of taking care of them in the hospitals, and they report how *Snakes* attacked with sheer ferocity and cunningness," as the Anbu finished his report, Minato dismissed him, turning his gaze to the window, to Konoha, and to where the forest of Death was.

"He's strong…alright," Minato whispered, as the door, behind him, opened, to reveal Danzo bringing in a blond-haired child, with an Anbu Wolf mask, that, once removed, revealed a face with whisker marks and blue eyes, the same height and size of Naruto.

"I've had this Root Operative prepared, we can begin the procedures at leisure, she won't notice the difference…and we will have the Kyuubi back," as Danzo whispered that, Minato nodded, narrowing his gaze towards the city.

"I will protect Konoha, the people of Konoha, and my wife, everyone wins…except the monster, but Good guys always win against demons, isn't that right, Danzo?"

Danzo grinned, before replying slowly.

"That is correct, Hokage-sama." _But only until the demon offers a better deal._

*Next day*

Naruto mused over the scalpel he had in his hand: should he actually use it or not? A Chakra scalpel was niftier, actually, as it could cut through without breaking the skin, Rin-san, however, was more for the practical approach.

"You're going to have to learn to use a scalpel, Naruto-kun," the woman, one of Kakashi's ex-teammates, pointed to the boy, who, slightly groaning, "You never know when you'll be without chakra and…" Naruto eyed her raising an eyebrow, him? Without chakra? It would be like claiming the ocean could dry up.

"Rin-sensei…I've got tenfold the double amount of Kage-level chakra, and that without having to disturb *it*, so…me, without chakra? Impossible." As he pointed that out, his sensei made a nice smile, before grabbing a chakra suppressant seal paper and slamming it with strength on his forehead.

"There, now you're…" the chakra seal paper burned, in the blink of an eye, as Naruto chuckled.

"I've got stronger seals on my person for a reason, Rin-sensei…seal papers won't work at all," as Naruto pointed that out, Rin slightly growled, before muttering back.

"I don't care, no chakra scalpel!" as Naruto nodded, sighing, he looked around.

They were in the hospital's basement, working on corpses used for training by other medic-nins, which meant that the majority of them were poorly stitched patchwork of various nature, and because of that, Naruto wasn't at all keen in going through the *sloppy seconds* of someone else, someone far less skilled than he was.

In silence, he began working on repairing a broken artery, with stitches and pincers and *feigning* removing blood loss with cotton balls. In a couple of minutes, the vein was closed, and Naruto, like he always did, began working on the rest of the poor folk's body.

"Give the body to the hospital! It will save lives by training the hope of tomorrow!" Naruto muttered, as he repaired a badly stitched spleen, "all I see are stitches and cuts that a baby would do with a katana, do you call this an incision?" pointing at a large cut in the side of the patient, "it's a frigging watermelon splice!"

Rin couldn't help but shake her head, repressing a chuckle, the boy's dark humor was something he had taken from her, and for that, she didn't know wherever to be pleased, or not. The boy always seemed to absorb knowledge at an alarming rate, so fast, indeed, that she was querying wherever he was natural, in medicine, or just a hard working fellow.

The door of the basement opened weakly, as the pink-haired girl, Sakura Haruno, walked down hesitantly. She got a bit more of courage, seeing how Naruto was easily handling…a corpse, which made her turn slightly green.

"Well, come over here miss," Rin said, waving at the girl, "my apprentice says you wish to learn, so, since this guy here is already schooled on the basics, while he gets the corpse back into a…workable state, I'll show you mister gassy,"

Naruto groaned, as Sakura, albeit green, queried.

"Mister…Gassy?"

"It's shock therapy," Naruto muttered, turning pale, "It's a really disgusting corpse that gets filled with all…organic waste, and then, with a little bit of chakra…goes all the way, puke, gas…all…really, it's better to cut a corpse open then to deal with mister Gassy,"

"Yeah…weak stomach here actually paled, and he's mending that stomach there like a pro," Rin replied, with a chuckle as Sakura, actually, thought about taking a step backwards, before gathering her courage, and following Rin. Well, how bad could a corpse be?

Five minutes later, Sakura had emptied her stomach, thrice, into a bucket, while Naruto had put on a medical mask, to at least counter the gas of the thing.

"That's mister Gassy for you! Until you can avoid puking, we'll rinse and repeat each day! In the meantime, I'll give you the basic medicine books to read from," as Rin pointed that out, Naruto chuckled, removing his gloves after closing up the testing corpse.

"Rin-sensei, I can take her to the library if you want to," with those words, as Rin nodded, Naruto grabbed Sakura from under her forearm, bringing her out of the basement before removing his medic mask.

"So…giving up?" He asked, as he started walking the stairs to get upwards.

Sakura bit her lip, clenching her fists and staring at the stairs straight ahead of her, a bit wobbly, but still able to walk.

"No," she replied, following Naruto. Maybe it was because he looked older, but she couldn't help but admire his broad shoulders and back. Those of a man, clearly, not of a fourteen years boy, and certainly not those of an eleven years one! But he was eleven years old, right?

"Listen," Naruto began slowly, as they exited the hospital, "whatever you are doing right now… Do it for yourself. Not for me."

Sakura stared at the boy, as she stopped for a brief second, in the crowded street, as Naruto turned his gaze to her, his dark blue gaze.

"I…" she wasn't sure what Naruto meant, actually, but mostly, she even didn't know how Naruto could know such a thing, was he able to read minds?

"I know, you were afraid, you were alone, and I came to save you, knight in shining armor and all," Naruto replied, softly, "but I am not one you can, or should, depend on. So if you're doing this because of me, stop now. Do this for yourself, to become someone better for your own ideas, not because of me," as he then pointed at the road, budging her to start walking again, as the library would require far more time to reach, if they stood still, Sakura moved, slowly.

"Why would you think that?" she queried, looking at him.

"You are not walking alongside me, but slightly behind me. You are following me, that much gives away your inner thoughts," Naruto replied, "It's something of a body language lesson I read somewhere," he added, chuckling.

"Well…it's just that, you look so…" _What do I say now? Charming? Good looking? Calming? Is *Calming* even an adjective? _

"Much like an adult, I find myself looking at a sensei, not a fellow student," she added, as they neared the library's doors.

"That may be true, but still, appearance deceive, Sakura-chan, there *is* a reason I am more mature, mentally," as he said that, he opened the door, revealing, in the library, over a hundred blond haired boys, all concentrated on a specific book.

"What…" Sakura's mouth opened just so slightly, before Naruto closed it with his left hand.

"Kage Bunshins requires the chakra to be split, but then, each is independent, and can acquire knowledge that at a later date *I* will come to possess when they dispel. Each of them has, and is, studying. When they dispel, their hours of study, and their thoughts, flew into me. Effectively, I mentally *age* because of them, and I physically age because…" his voice trailed off, "never mind that, let's get your books checked out."

Sakura followed, a bit embarrassed, the boy. She wanted to query what the technique was, but she knew it, after all, it was the same technique the fourth Hokage knew and used during his battle against Iwa, in the third Shinobi war. She had read the stories of how each clone was like the original, only with half the chakra. It could lead to grave chakra exhaustion, and Jounin-class ninjas could, at most, create six, before sprawling for weeks in the hospital beds…a hundred…here?

"My maximum limit," Naruto whispered, since the girl seemed actually curious, "is three thousands nine hundred," he pointed out, "and that if I wish to remain combat effective."

"One man army…right?" Sakura whispered, paling, at such information.

"Precisely, here we are: Veins and stabs, Burns and treatments," Sakura winced, by instinct touching her side, where her burnt marks were, "and medic-Nin battle basics," as he handed the books over to Sakura, she placed them in a pile, within her arms, before checking them out to the librarian, who said nothing, but did look slightly afraid of Naruto's gaze, as the *Only two books leave the library* policy suddenly disappeared.

"Well, better go back before Rin-sensei thinks we've eloped," Naruto chuckled, as Sakura, instead, blushed.

Someone, on a rooftop, wasn't at all amused by such words.

_So the pink-haired whore thinks she can elope with my son? _Kushina stared, with hatred, at the girl…nobody ran away with her son. Nobody, ever, did that.

Behind the two, however, she noticed the blue haired Oto-nin girl, who was following them from a certain distance. She narrowed her eyes, what did she want from her son? Huh? Was she another bitch? Why did everyone seem to want her son, to take him away from her?

"Kushina-san, nice day today, isn't it?" Kakashi was behind her, speaking.

The man too, wanted her son, she knew it: he was trying to win him over with his signature techniques, but he was going to fail! Everyone wanted her son, but she wouldn't give him to anyone, anyone at all!

"Yes, Kakashi-kun," Kushina muttered, "Why are you here?"

"I was asked to bring you to Minato-sensei's office, Kushina-san," Kakashi replied, as the red-haired woman, for a brief second, narrowed her gaze on the alley below, where, Kakashi knew, Naruto and Sakura were walking. That gaze was one he had come to know in his line of work, those of murderous intent displayed that gaze…he could feel it, as he slowly made a couple of steps to the side.

"We should get going, Kushina-san," Kakashi added, slowly.

"Oh, you're right, Kakashi-kun, fine, I'll go talk with my husband," with that, Kushina dashed, still, every now and then, lingering her gaze towards were Naruto and Sakura had gone.

Kakashi couldn't help it, he had to do something, before it turned out sour…maybe speak with Sakura. Naruto wasn't at all interested in the girl that much, was clear, he was simply helping her out, but, to an eleven year old girl, it looked like there was some sort of interest behind.

The copy-cat ninja shook his head. Just when did Naruto pass from being an easy to go scared Genin of Kumo to becoming a potential threat and time bomb on Konoha? He knew the answer, he knew it full well. It was from the moment he had been given the Kage Bunshins. Naruto, like any other ninja, played his hands on his strengths, and that…that was a technique that Kakashi knew, full well, that would make the boy soar through the heights of the ninja world, because he was he. No matter of seals, chains, or forbidden jutsus would stop him.

Orochimaru went mad in his lust for power, for immortality: the boy didn't care about his life end, only to go back to Kumo. Kakashi just hoped everything was going to be fine…even with the Hokage forcing him to train Sasuke, the last Uchiha, with the use of his awakened sharingan.

The copy-cat ninja scowled, recalling the order of his sensei, from morning till night, training him to become strong and without Icha-Icha until the finals. He'd rather train the time bomb of Konoha, then the *Last Uchiha*, he was starting to taking on his scowl. He hated scowling.

For that, he scowled more.

*Yugito*

Her team had failed, that much, was to be expected. She had done what she could, but even then, she knew they held little to no chance in winning. As they were on their road out of Konoha, and back to Kumo, she sighed, staring at horizon ahead of them.

What she actually felt, however, was remorse.

She had been petty. She knew it, in Takigakure. She had been angered, and enraged, at Konoha for having kidnapped her Otouto. She knew she shouldn't have done that, but there was no-one else around, so, why not? She had seen the two moving closer to the Hokage's daughter, probably wanting to kill her, as they looked like mercenaries and that…that was when she had yelled out who she was to them, before leaving. Fickle thing to do, telling two mist mercenaries that the red-haired girl was the daughter of the Hokage of Konoha, but she had wanted to have some revenge. They had stolen her Otouto, so she was having someone else steal their daughter. She had yelled that from the bushes, no way she could have been recognized. She was an expert in stealth, after all. However, the words of her Otouto…the only words she had heard from him in all of her staying in Konoha, had been *I'm home Kaa-san*, to her, to that whore from Konoha. That red-haired woman who had kidnapped him, brainwashed him, stolen him away and was now his Kaa-san. She felt disgust even thinking about it. How could it happen? Why did it happen?

Believing to Mogura, they didn't stand a chance in the forest. They were ambushed, quickly, and efficiently, and taken out while in camp. However they had awoken near one of the gates, without their scrolls, but faced with the only option of forfeiting, as snakes had stood guard in front of them, forcing them, in their weak state, to go back, and forfeit the second part of the exam.

Mogura had pointed out how it was highly probable it had been Naruto, who had done that and that…that had made Yugito cringe even more for her Otouto.

As they stood, walking, Yugito heard the light ruffle of leaves being moved, from the bushes to the side of the road.

She had narrowed her eyes, and grabbed a shuriken, only to see a snake slither out of there, a letter in his mouth.

"Yugito-sensei?" Shinkansen queried, as Yugito, calmly, took the letter and opened it.

_It is a pleasure to write to thee, _

_My name is Kuro, I'm sure you certainly recall the Wind Snake, the awesome black snake that is the slithering darkness of the night and the biter of the apocalypse. I must apologize, I am deeply sorry I could not protect Naruto from the chains that the Hokage placed on him, and that unluckily, there is nothing you may do to prevent. I will explain, but I beg your understanding: You cannot speak of this to anyone, not even the Raikage. I am writing this to you, in hope you comprehend, and burn the letter swiftly afterwards._

_Naruto may not engage in conversations, or speak to, any Kumo ninja without the presence of the Hokage, else, the seal on the back of his head would activate. Sending him into a Genjutsu induced mindless walking till Kumo, where he would, then, unleash the Kyuubi on your city; furthermore, he is also subjected to seals and bindings that can stop his chakra from being used, even those of the Kyuubi he possesses. He is staying in Konoha to protect Kumo and to protect the lives of his friends and of the Kumo shinobis he values, but still, I must apologize. I should have acted sooner, than later, should have saved the boy who saved me in return, years ago. I can promise you this, however: I will save Naruto from Konoha, and I will help him free himself, trust your little brother, Yugito Nii-san, for I trust him too._

_Ps: I had Yoru right this, I'm a bit too big to use an ink brush, as of now._

_PPS: This is the fifth letter pops makes me write: if you don't like the grammar, well, I DON'T CARE._

Yugito slowly read the letter, repeatedly, and then, without a single word, the letter burned in her hands as her Genins took a step backwards. Their sensei had such a murderous stare, that they didn't know what the letter had, but they sure as hell knew how angry she had to be.

**Cat…I'm…ARGH! I WANT TO BURN THOSE DAMN BASTARDS TO THE GROUND CINDER THEIR HOUSES SPIT ON THEIR BODIES AS THEY DIE AGONIZING DEATHS SOMEONE ARRRGHHH.**

_They made my Otouto a slave…they made my Otouto a slave, and someone wants me to believe they're going to save him…I … I… I'm…_

"Sensei?" Hayari queried, her voice betraying her worry.

Yugito stared at her ragtag group of Genins, and she softened. She had to bring them to safety in Kumo, at least, before coming back. She had to do that, and then…then she would march back and claim her Otouto through force, or die while burning down Konoha! That was what she was going to do, and she was going to do it as a rogue Kumo ninja, so everyone was going to be fine!

"**One month…"** Yugito growled, "to bring you lot to Kumo, then…" she growled again, "**I'm off alone grrr"**

*Hokage's office*

Minato stood in wait, as Kakashi slowly left him and Kushina alone, in the room.

"Kushina-hime…I need to check your right hand's seals…" as he whispered that, the red-haired woman nodded meekly, as the Hokage activated the privacy seals, and began working on removing the bandages.

He stared at the hand of his wife, the hand that had become clawed, with dark red fur, and that didn't seem to recede in the slightest.

"It's worse than before, Minato…it's going to reach the elbow soon," she whispered, not knowing what to do, and mostly, ashamed that Minato could come to see her like this.

"I'll apply more seals, Kushina-hime, don't worry, it will all be fine soon," as he began working again, Kushina felt tinges of guilt, of pain, running through her body, mostly, she felt tinges of pure hatred and anger being slowly ebbed away, little by little, until she sighed in relief, as the final seals were in place, and her right arm was bandaged once more, in seals.

"I saw Naruto-kun going together with Sakura-chan to the library, and then back to the hospital, for Rin-san's lessons," she spoke, chuckling, "they reminded me of you and me when we were younger…they'd make a fine couple, wouldn't they?"

"Yes…I suppose they would," Minato replied, sadly, he knew that, in a couple of days, she'd be back to willingly want to murder anyone or anything that would go near Naruto. It had taken him time to realize it, the Yin chakra energies that had dropped, during the battle with the Kyuubi, and that he had picked up, and stored in his wife, and in her Yin release, were resonating with the Yang chakra of the Kyuubi's host, and unless something was done…she'd worsen to the point of no-return.

That was why he had to act fast.

In one month, Danzo's operative was going to be ready, as he'd spar, and get closer to Naruto during his training in Root. That also served to make him spend little time with Kushina, avoiding worse relapses.

In one month, after the tournament, Naruto was going to be tired, at least, he hoped, after an entire afternoon of unstopping fighting, and caught by surprise, there would be little to no problem in capturing him, maybe in the excitement of the feast after the tournament, nobody was going to notice him disappearing.

In one month, he would have Yamato, and he, prepare a seal on a newborn baby, one born to a certain Yugao Uzuki, Anbu class, wife of Hayate Gekko, and then…the Kyuubi would swap places through Yamato's Mokuton abilities.

Kushina hadn't died thanks to her *Uzumaki* vitality and her Yin release…Naruto? Naruto would die, if not because of that, because they'd plant a damn sword through his body to make sure he'd stay dead, and the swapping would make the anbu operative choose Konoha and no-one…No-one would ever learn of this, and everyone would be happy. While, just to make things go even better, Naruto's body would be thrown out in the garbage dumpster, to be feasted upon by the condors and the rabid dogs…and Danzo's operative was going to make Kushina sane without relapses, or seal needs…

Everything would be fine…

He was the good guy.

Good guys always win.

**Author's notes**

**And the second part is out of the way. Next time, the tournament!**

**It's going to be legen…wait for it.**

…**dary!**

**(I hope).**

**First off, some battles I didn't describe were the canon one (Gaara VS lee? Canon) and Ino Vs Temari (Easy win for suna…no need bashing Ino anymore).**

**The rest were quite easy.**

**Q&A**

**Narutoluver: Much more minato in this chapter!**

**Horaiken: Just wait for the next month (In Naruto-time, I'll update probably tomorrow, again)!**

**Mysterious blu: Why not believe him? He's a charming good son!**

**IHangIrock: So I made you register to comment? Wow! Thanks!**

**Angeldoctor: Now, let's not be too sad, there is also Angst to be placed!**

**Tamult: well, his snakes are with him! That's fine, I guess.**

**GuestN°1: you do realize this is a sad story. Whose protagonist is Naruto. It's like claiming you hate reading porn while reading porn…**

**Mzr90: well Kat-SUMI-re… I kept two out of three parts of the name! Rin was seen, but she knows little to nothing. Except Kakashi suggested the boy.**

**Esparza: Why! I'm going to kill him to free him! Obviously! (uhuhuh).**

**Lanslet: And the chapter was delivered. Lot of stuff here too!**

**Dragonskyt: I was thinking for a while of making a "Snakes on a plain" crack word…but I decided against it. The hokage gets the Anbu report on who got in and who got out.**

**Ezcap1st: I promised fun…for which side?**

**Lightningblade: sorry for this chapter then…*gives bucket*.**


	18. Unending

Eighteenth chapter

Danzo couldn't help but grin, realizing that the Demon's deal had required some more incentive from his side as a nice little bird had informed him, a bird that had scales, and that was meant to work with him during the upcoming invasion of Konoha, that for Naruto to be truly effective, the seals on him would have to go. He had seen the seals, during the first week of Root training, where Naruto, his alias being Monster, like good old times, had shown his Taijutsu rust and Kenjutsu near lack. It was a sixteen point seal, that to learn how remove had required Danzo to pull a lot of strings, but, once that was off, everything else came easily. He had given his trust to the boy, showing it, and the boy had delivered the reply. Danzo, now, actually couldn't wait for *that* day, to come. It was going to be a very special day, that one: the day he became the Hokage, and not just any Kage, but the Godaime Hokage.

Looking him spar, he couldn't help but still feel pride, as the boy, in the beginning, knew only how to pierce, the basic motion, but he knew nothing more. One thing he was capable of, however, was learning fast. He truly was meant to be Konoha's perfect weapon, but Danzo, no matter how many times he had been called a war hawk, and a fool, was not a blind man.

He knew the boy worked on deals and promises really hard. He knew the boy didn't like being toyed with, and he knew his word would be counted on, if he too gave his own. They had a deal, and Danzo, no matter the paranoia, preferred a willing Kumo ally than a forced Konoha weapon. Strong weapons were hard to control, but weapons as strong as the boy? Impossible, to say the least: so if Konoha was going to grow strong, it needed the boy, this boy, not the substitute or an infant baby to grow. Genjutsu would work, certainly, but then again, it would only give him three years, three years of which, in the end, the land of Iron would require Konoha to explain why the boy had been forced into one, to make him choose. There was little to be said, on his opinion. Only one thing counted: bringing the boy on his side.

A willing weapon was better than an unwilling one, and Minato…Minato was a fool, and that much, was certain. He should have kidnapped the boy, feigned ignorance, and be done with it. Instead, he brought the boy to the academy, out in the open, Kumo had come, and now…now the boy had to go where he wanted to. He had prepared it perfectly too.

Minato really thought it would take a few days to find a replicate of the boy in face and markings? It took time for the surgical operations to work, but he had prepared. The boy's information, in the Chuunin exams, was going to be what he needed to have his way through the council. He was sure of it, because the boy had no need to lie, not to him, and with how grand that knowledge was…it was marvelous.

Danzo knew that Yamato was watching every single move, he was a Root captain, true, but he was also a loyalist to the Hokage's position, a thing that, unluckily, worked badly if you were the Root leader and expected absolute loyalty, while at the same time having to teach loyalty to the Hokage to the orphans that no-one wanted, but who had the potential for greatness.

The two fighters, in front of him, stopped moving. One had a Ninjato an inch away from the other's jugular. The match was already called.

"You were supposed to fight with Katanas only," Danzo stated, staring at the two, wolf-mask and bird-mask, "Why did you use a Ninjato?"

"To follow the rules of engagement is to be weak. In battle matters only life or death, the rest is worthless," The boy replied, as Bird-mask didn't move his gaze, but he did slightly tense at the knowledge acquire.

"Well done, Monster. Bird, go relearn all five books on warfare."

"Yes, Danzo-sama," without a word, Bird-mask left, as Monster slowly descended to Danzo's side.

"I feel sorrow, for what I did in the past, but at present, I feel the need to correct my past mistakes," as Danzo spoke slowly, he beckoned two Anbus to move closer, with a clothed weapon in their hands, that they offered to Danzo, who, removing the clothes, revealed a black sheathe, and a black katana handle with a small silver hand guard, "Your skills are excellent, once more you exceed my expectations, in barely a month. So this…and what it entails, are a gift for you," Naruto nodded, as he received the Katana. He realized nearly immediately that the handle was hollow, holding the probable plan made by Danzo for the Chuunin exams to go through without a hitch, on his side, Naruto always left a slip of paper on his Root mask, before giving it back to Danzo, when he had something to tell the old man about.

"I thank you, Danzo-sama," with those words Naruto bowed his head, holstering the Katana on his back.

"Under the tree stands the hidden shield of the leaf," Danzo spoke, slowly, as Naruto swiftly replied.

"To rise to the skies when enemy advances," and with that, both said at the same time, just as Naruto removed his mask.

"We are the Root."

Yamato said nothing, as he kept his monkey-mask on; still, it was to be obvious, the boy clearly had lingering brainwash, and it was simply resurfacing once more. Danzo was also, on the Hokage's secret request, putting the boy through the brainwashing cycles, as always. Albeit Yamato couldn't participate, they were always one on one with the leader of Root, he was sure they were working. The boy was more and more faking his emotions, slowly having them dwindle down to a drop.

In time for the tournament, in two days, he'd be emotionless.

"I will take him from here," Yamato said, moving forward, from the wall he had been resting his back, "We are to move fast, *Dinner* approaches," with that, Danzo turned to leave, the wolf-mask of the boy in his hand.

He kind of wondered, the leader of Root, how the boy had managed to go through the *Do not reveal this to anyone* part of seal, and actually, that was what was making the head of the Root leader think hard.

The boy clearly couldn't have been delivering messages written by him, concerning the seal, without activating it, but he didn't march towards Kumo under a Genjutsu, so something *was* going on.

So, someone else had to be writing him the messages, someone who knew about the deal and was thus making the boy act as a simple *Messenger*, and it had to be someone the boy trusted, because the boy clearly couldn't read the slip of papers, or he would be helping someone in knowing the deal.

Whoever he was…he had to be extremely cunning.

Somewhere, a black snake sneezed, making the cavern walls reverberate.

*Dinner*

"So, Yamato-sensei, is my student doing alright in his extensive training regime with you?" Kushina queried all smiles and happiness as she grabbed her own ramen bowl from Teuchi's hands, while Ayame slightly blushed, at the sight of Naruto's serious face, in taking his own.

"He is, Namikaze-san, he is," Yamato replied, taking his own bowl, and starting to eat it, "he's got a lot of potential, and having I been personally hired by the Hokage, I'll make sure to unleash it all."

**Please, unleash me!**

_You know, I was waiting for that to free you from the seal._

**Really?**

_No, messing with you._

…**touché.**

As Naruto blushed slightly at the praise, or feigned to, a fact that even more made Yamato believe the boy's emotions had been suppressed, Kushina smiled to the boy, and said.

"Well, Naruto-kun, the Hokage has high hopes for you, I'm sure you will not betray his trust,"

_They are just making it easier and easier to feign being an emotionless who feigns having emotions._

"Of course Kushina-sensei, I'll make the Hokage proud, that's how much I love Konoha!" as he said that, with a smile, Yamato finished his bowl, he was going to report to the Hokage how Naruto's emotions had been removed with success. He'd probably obey even getting his Kyuubi removed, probably, with the right amount of words.

"Already leaving, Yamato-sensei?" Naruto whined, a feign whine.

"I'm afraid I have to, you put me through hell in training…" _didn't move a finger, Danzo's rookies were there for that_, "So I'll be going to sleep. Tomorrow, same hour." As Yamato moved away, after paying his due, Naruto and Kushina swiftly went through nine bowls of ramen, before calling the dinner to an end.

As they slowly walked back towards the mansion, Naruto narrowed his eyes just so slightly. At first, it was bugging him, but now he was sure of it. Clone number…something, had dispersed, revealing that the blue haired girl *was* following him, since her accepting to stay in Konoha for the upcoming tournament, and that, that made Naruto's mood widen up…because he could use her, like everyone else, for what was about to happen.

He only had to put up with his *mother*, who had, by some sort of twisted way, decided to walk right behind him, and he could feel her staring at him from the back, something that was making his neck-hair rise, slightly.

"Naruto-kun…is there anyone you like, in particular?" as she queried that, Naruto slowly mumbled something back.

"I didn't hear you, Naruto-kun," she added.

"No-one, why?" as a reply, he got but a giggle. His eyes slowly darted to the closest possible hiding spot. Sure enough, the blue haired girl was there, in hiding, and seemed even keen on listening to what he was saying.

"You've got yourself a stalker, it seems," Kushina pointed that out, slowly moving closer to the boy, and standing to his side, "seems like you're a heart-stealer." As she started walking alongside Naruto, the boy shot her a nervous glance, she seemed *normal* still.

"Well…you're not the first person to tell me this," he replied, quietly, something was different, but what? His eyes moved to the bandaged woman's hand…there were more seals on it now, far more than the first week, or the second, or the third...there were as many seals as the bandage could hold, actually.

He narrowed his eyes for a moment.

_Seals huh…she didn't need them before…you think they actually brought her back from the dead, and she's rotting little by little?_

**I doubt…she'd have a caved in skull, after all.**

"Kushina-sensei…why do you have all those seals on your right hand?" he queried, staring at the woman with pleading eyes, but all he got back was the woman looking sideways, before increasing her pace just so slightly. The body language meaning she didn't want to speak about it, at all.

Naruto said nothing more, following the woman back home, and only there, did the woman turn around in tears.

"Naruto-kun…your Kaa-san is a really horrible person, you know?"

…_this is strange._

"Wh…Why?" he queried, shocked, actually showing said emotion, and being glad that Yamato wasn't around to point it out, as the woman simply began crying.

"Because…Because I was weak, and when I gave birth…he came and…he took the Kyuubi out of me. I was the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi before you, Naruto," as she whispered that, more tears began to fall, "and the burden then fell on you when the third sealed him into you."

"He…who?" Naruto asked, once more.

"A masked man… He had the sharingan, and he managed to pull the Kyuubi out thanks to the weakened seal," as she pointed that out, Naruto mused.

"But once a Bijuu and a Jinchuuriki are separated, the host dies," as he pointed that out, Kushina bit her lip, shaking her head.

"The Uzumaki clan is renowned for its vitality, chakra and…well, the chakra chains. I had the Yin Release seal of Tsunade-sannin on me, too, and with that…I survived the extraction." She whimpered, recalling all the pain it had been, but the brief moment of joy in holding her daughter's tiny arms…but no small boy was going to get her hugs, and that small boy was now an adult in front of her, one that…she couldn't let strange thoughts distract her: she was his mother, it was her duty to make him feel loved and understood, and to protect him by all harms, even the women who wanted to harm him, like that stalker from before! How could she even think the girl was doing a cute thing? The girl was a stalker! She wanted her Naruto-kun dead!

"Do you think I could have one too?" Naruto queried, interested, and mentally cursing the woman for having so much valuable information, and sharing it only *then*.

"I'll ask Tsunade, why didn't I think about this before? You're a small genius Naru-chan!" as Kushina hugged him tightly, drying her tears, thoughts crossed her mind.

_Yeah, he's mine, my son, my Naruto. I'm not handing him over, not today, not tomorrow, or the days to come. He's mine and mine alone, not even death will claim him! _

When she detached herself from him, her eyes had already started to softly change their glint, as Naruto, not noticing it, smiled to her. The seals on her right arm glowing, however, did catch the boy's attention, and this time, Naruto knew what to do.

"Thank you, Kaa-san!" Before dashing to probably take a shower, and then going to sleep.

_Now that I think about it, should I wash his back too? _As Kushina mulled over that thought, she shook her head, her Naru-chan was a grown up boy, he was able to take care of himself…which made her a bit sad, after all he wouldn't need his mother for longer…and that made her angry.

"He'll always want his mother next to him," she whispered to herself, "he's a good son." Convincing herself of that, she went to her bedroom, humming a slight lullaby. Yeah, he was a good son, and nothing was going to take him away from her.

Naruto sighed in relief, only when the door of her bedroom had closed, did he dare make a shadow clone appear to guard the outside of the bathroom while he washed himself. Quickly, without time to waste, and not a second to lose, he was done in less than ten minutes, exiting the bathroom's door just in time for his clone to dispel, and Kushina to come along, in a bath towel.

_Need to be faster._

…**You know, she's creepy alright.**

"I'm done, Kaa-san, you can go in now," as Naruto smiled at his mother, moving to his room, he could feel the gaze in the back of his head, a sort of half sorrowful, but also half furious gaze.

Furious not at him, but at what he had done, probably…

_Kami help me…it's going to be nuts tomorrow…I hope Kuro's got a better deal than me for the end-month._

Naruto slowly slid under his bed sheets, trying to get some sleep, because he knew, he knew it all too well: if he didn't sleep within the next twenty minutes, he wouldn't sleep at all, since his *mother* would slowly, but surely, creep into his room, and sit at the side of his bed. Staying there, gazing at him, for all the night.

The next morning, his eyes opened to the red-hair of his *Kaa-san* in front of him, obviously. He had come to terms with the fact that she wasn't going to go anywhere, until he greeted her by sitting up, and giving her a quick peck on the cheek, while saying.

"Good morning, Kaa-san!" to which, she would reply.

"Good morning, Naru-chan," before moving out of the way, to go prepare breakfast.

It made him shiver, but he just had to endure it, as he knew perfectly well that, on the tournament's day, Orochimaru was going to invade Konoha...courtesy of the guys he had tortured into answering.

He was thankful for Epsilon help, the one to break had been, in truth, the horridly scarred one, with little use of flames, too.

People who burnt because of fire either feared or sought that scorching flame out, the searing pain, the melting fat, it was either a hate and love or a love and hate relationship. The man had talked. The invasion plan would start during the tournament, and the signal would be given when the Hokage's box, supervising the battles, would explode, and Oto and Suna ninjas would fight together. That much, Naruto had discovered from the man, and that much, he had told Kuro, who had thought of a plan. A grand plan, like the snake had pointed that out with his tail.

He left it to his friend: he had to survive in enemy territory.

It took time, getting dressed, slowly, knowing that tomorrow was the day of the tournament, and that, today, was the last day of fooling around.

He narrowed his eyes, moving out of the room, and slowly going down for breakfast, where the Hokage stood, eating his share of cooked rice, and grinning just slightly at him entering.

He hated the man, but he wouldn't do anything to voice it out, not with *her* in the same room.

"So, Son, everything fine today? You nervous for tomorrow?" as Naruto shrugged, Kushina chuckled.

"He's so nervous, the poor thing, can't even talk," as she ruffled his hair, Naruto repressed the need to shudder.

"Well, this tournament is going to be remembered, certainly, the fire Daimyo was impressed by your strength, you know? He demanded to see all that you can do…so you'll have to give it your all," as the Hokage said that, Kushina widened her mouth in surprise.

"Yeah! If that happens, he might make you one of Konoha's guardians, Naru-chan! You're going to be great, dattebayo!"

_Kyuubi._

**Boy.**

_Help me…_

…**no.**

"I hope so, Kaa-san!" Naruto replied with a smile, as he finished breakfast, forcing himself to.

As he turned to leave, the Hokage, just so casually, said.

"Naruto, you have done a great job, for this month, when the time comes, at the tournament, I want you to yell out loud and clear how much you love Konoha, understood?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Naruto replied gritting his teeth, as Kushina made a small pout.

"Naru-chan, it's *Otou-san*," Naruto's fists clenched, as he replied.

"Yes, Otou-san," Minato smirked, as he dismissed Naruto, who departed for the hospital, for in the morning, he had training with Rin.

He knew, descending the stairs to the basement that he'd find Sakura, in a sort of medic coat, with a medic mask on her face, operating on a corpse. He knew because it had been the same scene every month. He'd come down, and she'd be busy on a corpse, after the first three days, Gassy didn't matter anymore.

While she worked on her corpses, he had started the rounds on living people in the clinic. Only light cases, no operating. Something about having him on a living people made people edgy, *The Demon Fox* saving a life? "Better death", that was the usual reply, him healing scrapped knees was still barely understandable.

Good thing Sakura didn't know, either she didn't want to realize it, that he was the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki, or maybe she simply didn't care. In any case, she always stared at him, just slightly, every now and then, before turning to her job. He usually came down only to make his presence in the hospital known by Rin and by Sakura, before going back up for his usual round of wounded trainees.

"Konohamaru? You here again?" Naruto muttered looking at the boy with the long blue scarf, who was staring sideways, as his Jounin teacher, Ebisu, frowned at the sight of the boy.

"The honorable grandson of the third is Konohamaru-sama to you, you…" A gaze from Naruto was enough to make the Tokubetsu Jounin to shut up, and a clear hand sign to leave the room was more than enough to have him leave the two alone, as the blond-haired boy turned to the brat, once the room was devoid of the noisy guy.

"So, what is it today? Stomach ache? Tooth ache? Scrapped knees?"

"I'm…I'm in love," he muttered back, as Naruto raised an eyebrow, so why did he come to him?

"And you're here because…"

"You've got that nice pink-haired chick! And the blue haired one is stalking you! So I wanted to know how you manage…I don't know what to do to make her notice me," he whispered.

"Her, who?"

"Promise not to laugh," Konohamaru said.

"Hanabi Hyuga?" Naruto queried, leaving the boy surprised.

"And how do you know that!" he basically screeched.

"Well…she *is* the one who comes to literally take you back to school by the ear, you always hide in the same places, which means that either you like her, or you're too stupid to hide elsewhere," as Naruto pointed that out, the door opened, to actually reveal Hanabi Hyuga, her face contorted in anger, as she grabbed Konohamaru by the scarf.

"Back to school! You truant! Stomach ache my ass!" a set of sullen words later, Naruto coughed.

"Yes!" Hanabi jumped, seeing Naruto in a medic coat made her thing, do to his height, that he actually was a medic, "I'm sorry sir, I just…" she slightly turned red thinking about how she had just dishonored the house.

"He loves you. Do you love him?" Naruto said, pointing at the boy who paled, staring back at the blond-haired boy, before staring at the white eyes of Hanabi, waiting for an answer, one that he dreaded...

"Well…" she blushed, "I don't dislike him."

"Good, she loves you too. I'm done, now out you two, I've got real wounded people to see today," as Naruto pushed the two out, while sighing, he dropped them both out of the room, waiting for the next wounded to come in.

"Clinic duty…*Love counseling* would be better," he muttered.

He was surprised, when the *blue stalker* actually came in next, sitting down, with her right hand sporting a gush wound that was still slightly bleeding.

"Training mishap?" Naruto queried to *Sumire*, who in turn, nodded, slightly blushing as the boy held her hand, grabbing cotton and disinfectant.

"Naruto-kun, right?" she said, as the boy began cleaning the wound, it was pretty deep too, he'd need a couple of stitches. He could use chakra, but he was sure the girl was there to talk to him…quite sure about it too…after all, the wound was self-inflicted with a shuriken.

"Yes, you're Sumire-chan, right?" as Naruto said that, the girl nodded, before whispering.

"I…I saw you're always around your sensei," she said, "Is she a great teacher?"

"Info gathering for tomorrow's match?" Naruto grinned, before shaking his head, "No, but she is an Uzumaki, I suppose she's just happy to see some of her family…I'm her nephew, of sorts," he added.

"You live in her house," she pointed that out, "are you sure you're fine with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be fine with that?" Naruto queried back, perplexed.

"She looked a bit…strange."

"Strange how?" Naruto insisted.

"Well, the way she looks at you, its…wrong, and … I heard she goes around with chains and the likes, does she hit you?" as she queried that, Naruto assumed a shocked expression.

"How did you…" _come up with such an absurd statement?_

"I knew it!" as the girl basically cried, hugging him, Naruto's brain turned for a split second to mush…just what was going on here?

"You don't need to be hit anymore, Naruto-kun, I'm here to save you," she whispered.

_Oh Kami…she knows who she is. She hadn't lost her memory…but what…_

"Listen, I know you might not believe me, but I'm Katsumi," Naruto's mouth remained slightly open, not pronouncing a word, so the girl kept on, "I'm here to save you from our parents, those monsters," she spat out in anger, "my master knows you have to be with Konoha because of the seals…so he has offered to free you from them, if you choose to come with me, you'll be free," Naruto bit his lips, looking sideways.

"I…" he began, but Katsumi closed his mouth with her hand, whispering.

"I know, you can't choose now, during the tournament, you'll choose then, don't worry about it, I'll forfeit against you after showing my skills. I'll make you proud of me…Oniisan," and, after giving him a quick kiss on the forehead, she left the room.

Naruto slowly, but calmly, stood up, closed the room, returned to the center of the room, and then hit the floor hard with his head.

"I heard all that…right?" he muttered to himself.

**Suspects were true, then, Otogakure and Orochimaru are together, which means…**

_I'll have the seal removed before entering the Arena, Kuro told me to go on top of the third's head, tomorrow morning. Danzo should be there._

**Afterwards, we finish the tournament, Danzo becomes Hokage, and he frees us. **

_And we leave this place for good._

**However, Orochimaru will press the attack during the tournament.**

_This means I'll have to defend Konoha, for his assault._

**And Kuro has that covered.**

_Okay, we can do this, tomorrow is going to be a great day, of freedom, and revenge!_

**And Chihuahuas! **

_You like Chihuahuas? _

**Try and pronounce the name, come on! It's funny!**

Naruto sighed…it was going to be a long day.

*Next Day*

Naruto watched, as the altar, that looked so much like one to offer a sacrifice to the a sort of demonic entity, stood sparkling a dark blue flame on the center. To unbind something, one needed something of equivalent power, but opposite direction, so a five point seal of binding required a five point seal of unbinding, and, in this case, it had to work only for Naruto's head, and not for his stomach. It had required a month of intensive search, but Danzo, now, was more than fully ready to perform the feat. He was a master Fuinjutsu, maybe not as grand as Kushina would have been in her best of days, but he was extremely skilled, all cursed tongue tattoos came from him, after all. The boy obeyed, silently getting into position. He prepared the ink brush, and then the process began…

In the beginning, it scorched the back of his head like someone had been dripping liquid metal on it, then, it slowly unbind, and his eyes, for a brief moment, felt something surging upwards, like they were trying to cave in, or to pop-out. He felt dizzy, nauseous, and then he felt incredibly angry, before feeling incredibly sad. The Kyuubi roared in its cage, trying to free himself for the occasion, but was forced back by an increase in the chains, as more and more clones of Naruto dispersed, sending back their remaining chakra to bind the beast once more, to close the gate that the beast had unhinged, to keep him there, to seal it once more, through his strength, and his alone.

Danzo saw the chakra flicker through the boy's body, turning a deep purple tint, before reassuming its normal blue color, while he covered the sixteen point seal with a sixteen point erasing seal, completing it with another seventeen point one, to unbalance both, and swiftly remove them, as they literally dripped out of the boy's head, the ink falling on the ground in a small puddle.

The boy was sweating, but otherwise seemed unharmed.

"The seal has been removed," Danzo replied, as the boy stood up, nodding, and pulling upwards his sleeve, for the seal on his forearm, Naruto muttered.

"The information is the following: I am the Hokage's son, he bind me, chained me, and had me work for the following month to kill civilians against his rule and to spy upon Root to make sure it would follow him, I've gotten scrolls hidden under my bed in the Namikaze Mansion detailing the deals and I've got my blood to prove I'm his son. He also broke the alliance treaty with Kumo, as the sixteen point seal had a Genjutsu inside of it, that would force me to charge into Kumo and unleash the Kyuubi," Danzo's single eye widened, as the boy, however, kept talking, "he hid the information from the council, and his wife…his wife tried to kill a Kunoichi of Konoha in madness, but instead of being brought to justice he gave the fault to me," a small white lie, but he had prepared it, "like he faulted me for all the Jounin and Anbu-class workings that instead belonged to Kabuto, as he was the one to have the red armguards in his basement," which Naruto had planted there, just revenge for planting fake information on *his* evil doers, "and Suna and Sound are going to declare war on Konoha during the tournament, when the Kage's box explodes. Orochimaru has killed the Kazekage taking its place, and Sumire, the blue haired Oto-nin, is in truth Katsumi Namikaze…is this info enough payment?" Danzo's eyes widened, before smiling, for the first time in all his life, the man smiled widely.

"The day Root lost you…I should have cried. I've got this for you…" the war hawk grabbed from his sleeve a Kumo headband, offering it to Naruto, who took it, carefully placing it on his forehead, after removing the Konoha one.

"Now let's remove that smaller seal, Naruto, I've got to become Hokage…and you have to go back home," with those words, Danzo began his work on the smaller two points seal, nothing more than a two minutes work, or even less.

*The arena*

They stood there, all eight of them stood straight up. Gritting his teeth, he slowly scratched the back of his head. Minato Namikaze didn't like the fact that Naruto was being late. He didn't like it one bit, and many thoughts, especially stares from the Raikage, who was sitting next to him, and the Kazekage, who was sitting on his other side, were in his mind, just where did the boy end up with? He was essential to arrive first…without him first, it wouldn't work!

The sun was high on the sky, the clouds were missing, and it was a wonderful day. As the eight began to sweat, someone in the crowd began complaining, soon, it became a wave of complains. The Hokage, high on his box, stared at them from up above, with a grievous expression, did the boy play truant? Really? It couldn't be intentional. He looked at Kushina down below, first row, she was the one clearly agitated, as those around her had gotten away for her chains to actually sprout. She was probably going to rampage soon, so where was the boy!

Sakura stood next to her mother, and father, both watching with distaste the scene. They had come just because one of her daughter's teammates had made it to the finals, but had they known it had been the infamous Naruto, they would have refused. Now, however, they couldn't leave. What worried Sakura's mother the most, however, was the glint in her daughter's eyes, a glint of loneliness and sadness for the fact that the boy wasn't there yet. It was strange. Usually her daughter's moods were either happy, angry, or ignorant, instead now she was…worried. The type of adult, mature worry that a woman or a man had when truly caring for someone else, and not the type of stupid nonsense of worry on *what should I wear for a date?* thing. It was sincere. That, that made Sakura's mother worry.

A loud whistle echoed into the air, as finally, in the center of the field, Naruto appeared, crashing straight in the center of it, while a wide crater formed under his feet because of the impact with the ground. As he stood up, the cloud of dust began dispersing, to reveal his clothes, which were not the same he had taken with him in the morning.

Sakura's eye opened in surprise, as Sai, who stood behind the pink haired girl, narrowed his own, before relaxing visibly: he had seen the sign on the boy's back.

He was wearing a black mantle, with the kanji for *Yami*, his clothes were dark green and dark brown, trimmed with red, and in the front, he no longer wore the Uzumaki spiral. On his forehead, stood a Kumo headband, and that made the Hokage narrow his eyes. The boy raised his right hand, with a big grin, before yelling out loud.

"Yo! Sorry I'm late! I was lost on the path of life!" as he took his place, to the extreme left, Minato narrowed his eyes, on the boy…just what was the meaning of this? Especially when, after a while, he took out…an Icha-Icha book!

Kakashi stared at the boy from his seat, actually having a single tear of joy falling from his face, he…he just felt…so much *his* son, in that moment…he just couldn't be happier, that day.

Kushina, visibly, relaxed. Her thoughts on her boy being kidnapped disappeared, as he laughed and waved, but she still felt a need to stare murderously at the copy-cat ninja, who was silently crying his joy, and who had clearly corrupted her son with that garbage of porn books.

Concentrated on his grand entrance, nobody noticed the councilors for the public council and the shinobi of the council being slowly called out…

"It is with great pleasure," Minato decided to make the boy suffer later, as he began his speech, "that I announce the final part of the exams for Chuunins! Let me present to you the contestants! The late arrival is Naruto Uzumaki from Konoha!" as the crowd began yelling curses at the demon, or even outright insulting him, everyone turned to silence, as chains rattled around. When silence arrived, a polite clap came from Kushina, as well as B and the Raikage. In the end, it was an embarrassed clapping that echoed through the arena.

The Raikage was staring with a slight growl at his son, one entire month of eluding him, B, C was a sensor ninja and he eluded him too! Just why was the boy doing that? The next moment, he crashes in with a Kumo headband and dressed like a cultist…just what was going on?

"Then we have Saya Ichigawa, from Kumo!" this time, there were more claps and cheers, especially from the Kumo civilians come to visit, or the officers, or simply because the Raikage and B clapped like a hundred men at the same time.

"Neji Hyuga, of the Hyuga clan, from Konoha!" claps and cheers, from the branch family, well, *they* were happy to have one of their own in the finals. The main family was present for keeping up a façade, but they were all, clearly, scowling.

"Gaara, of Suna!" none applauded from the crowd.

"Temari, of Suna!" a couple of people applauds were heard.

"Kankuro, from Suna!" A lot of cheers and applauses echoed in the air, coming from…

"Are those transvestites?" Temari queried to her brother, who groaned.

"Why does my facial paint make them think I'm swinging that way!"

"Karin Uzumaki, from Otogakure!" the civilians politely applauded, as her surname was the same as that of the Hokage's wife, they thought they might be distantly related.

"Sumire, from Otogakure!" her name came with little to no applauses.

"Tenten, from Konoha!" more applauses, certainly more than those of Naruto, or those of Neji, well, she was a nice girl, and she didn't have problems either of *demonic* nature, or of *branch* situation.

"Yagura, from Konoha!" The applauses came from a group of bodybuilders and athletes, all cheering the Taijutsu only boy.

"Kiba Inuzuka, from the Inuzuka clan, of Konoha!" These applauses were those worthy of actually being called that, since there was everything, howls, yells, cheers, everything.

"Sasuke Uchiha, from the Uchiha clan, of Konoha!" More cheers, it was a famous clan, and Sasuke raised his head, glad to have won against his *rival* at least in the cheer department.

"Well," The Hokage went on, "for the Daimyo's explicit request, this tournament will be done differently, from the others," everyone stared at the Hokage, who explained, "the first fighter will always remain on the fighting grounds, until defeated, in which case the winner will take its place. Everyone will have a chance at becoming a Chuunin by displaying its skills, so go all out. The first one…"

Naruto rolled his eyes, he knew it already, that was the reason, days before, he had said to *go all out*.

"Will be Naruto Uzumaki," With those words, the Hokage sat down, as the examiner, Hayate, stared at the boy, whispering.

"Listen boy, my wife's broken waters yesterday, do me a favor, and be quick…I'd like to see my newborn soon," Naruto nodded as the first fighter to challenge him was Saya.

*Naruto Vs Saya Ichigawa*

Hayate had barely whispered the *begin*, that Naruto had closed his eyes. He could feel the crowd watching him, as the wind blow a gentle breeze to ruffle his air, he couldn't help but grin, slightly, as he recalled his entrance, and his attitude. This was just how much happy he felt in that moment. He was free. He was soon going to be free. If all hell broke loose, this time, he wouldn't turn around. He'd take everyone down with him. As he carefully placed his Icha-Icha edition in his pocket, he imagined just how proud Kakashi was of him in that moment, both late and with Icha-Icha in hand.

"Why the Kumo headband?" she queried, and, to that, Naruto smiled, Saya had tried a Genjutsu, just then, but it hadn't worked, someone *was* helping him out of it.

"Because…well, you'll see the surprise," he replied slowly, charging straight ahead, as he slowly followed the hisses of the snakes on his jacket, to direct his hits.

Saya ducked down, trying to punch straight at Naruto's stomach, only to scream and jump backwards, her hand bleeding.

Naruto's front had small snakes with sharp fangs that had actually dashed forward from his shirt to bite at the incoming punch, and with a chuckle, the boy opened his eyes, his blue eyes staring at her, her vision slowly fading.

"Sweet dreams," Naruto whispered, as Saya fell on the ground, fainted, "Send in the next one! I'm not even warmed up!" as the second part came in a yell, Hayate shrugged, well, the Medic-nins removed Saya, and the next one came on his own, his gaze furious even more.

Sakura, from up above, stared at the battle proceeding with a bit of awe. Would she be able to do those same feats? She shook her head. No, Naruto had told her she had to do this for herself: she had to follow her own road, wherever it would lead her. She had decided, then, that she would become a great medic-nin, and she just needed enough courage to ask Tsunade. She was still in the village, albeit, strangely, whereas Sakura had seen her sitting down at the beginning, now she was nowhere to be found. It seemed strange, to say the least.

*Naruto Vs Neji Hyuga*

"You!" he yelled, pointing his finger at Naruto, "I'm going to show you what it means to belittle Konoha's Hyuga and the Juken style!" as Neji stood into his stance, activating his Byakugan, Naruto stared at him, a smile on his face.

"I feel so much at ease now," he muttered, to the Hyuga boy, that when Neji charged straight through, Naruto's mantle flipped open, to reveal two long snakes, that, sort of like tentacles, attacked the charging Hyuga who, however, managed to break his charge and take them down with his Juken, making the two snakes disappear.

"Pitiful creatures," Neji muttered, "Fate has already decided your loss, today, snake boy: my Byakugan will see any trap you send at me."

Naruto sighed, shaking his head slowly.

"A pity then…"

"What did you say?" Neji's forehead vein bulged for a second, by was this insolent no-one offending him!

"You don't understand?" Naruto queried, taking a deep breath, as he scratched his head.

"Well…let me show you," Neji was on the boy before he could finish his sentence, and before he could bite his thumb, hitting him with his chakra enhanced fist straight in the chest, sending the snakes to scatter, and puff out of existence, and then, he began.

"Hakke Rokujūyon Shō!" the first two became four, four became eight, eight became sixteen, the Tenketsu points closed as they became thirty-two hits, and finally, at the sixty-fourth, Naruto stood wobbling on his feet, having barely the strength to move, with Neji still in front of him.

"See who wins now?" he muttered to Naruto, who grinned, as blood came down his mouth.

"Thank you, Neji…I needed less chakra in me," with those strange words, Neji dashed backwards, as chakra chains of an eerily red color erupted from the boy's back, dashing at him even though the boy used his fists to deflect most of them.

"Naruto's style: Kurama's tails!" it took a moment, for a certain Yakumo girl, to blush, as the only *Kurama* she knew of was her surname, as she stood along the other spectators, watching the fight. Sai gave her a puzzled look, but Yakumo was equally lost in the reason for that technique's name.

Sakura stared at the girl, and then at Naruto. There was a slight feeling of jealousy in her, but it was only slight, she knew the boy didn't have any romantic interests…still, she kind of hoped he'd name a technique after her too.

Nine chakra chains started gently floating on the boy's back, kind of like tails, and, with a sarcastic grin, Naruto's eyes turned slowly red.

Neji's byakugan saw the Tenketsu point slowly opening again, but more than that…

"Your entire chakra system is burning up!" he practically shouted, as Naruto, with a small grin, began laughing.

"Took you long enough to realize it, with that Byakugan of yours! Normality, for me, is having five-hundred shadow clones minimum doing stuff around, but since yesterday I started dispelling them all…and today I recovered nearly all of my chakra!" with that, his chains dashed forward, carving gushes in the ground where they hit, as Neji used all his ability to dodge the swinging and piercing, of the chains, until he realized they were converging all on him, forcing him to use his second move.

"Hakkeshō Kaiten!" as he spun around, emitting chakra from his pores on his hands, the chains flung backwards, redirected to hit Naruto himself, but dispersing at Naruto's whim, the only result being a bit of wind on the blond-haired boy's face.

"Now tell me, Hyuga Neji…do you truly think you can win this match?" Naruto queried with a grin, as he once more moved to bite his thumb, only for the Hyuga to charge straight in.

Hinata had told him, even though she was a main family and he was a branch family, she had told him of his summons, during his fight against Kiba. He had to act fast, because if he called any summon in, it would be the end.

"SO much for not falling into traps," Naruto stated with a snarky comment, as Neji, suddenly, felt the ground gave way under him, as two Narutos with electrically charged hands grabbed his legs, letting the electric current jolt through his all body, until they dispersed, bringing the Hyuga down on his feet, panting hard.

Naruto slowly moved closer, his Tenketsu points all opened up again.

"You…just what is…that strength…" he muttered, at which point, Naruto, placing a hand under his chin, replied.

"It is the hard work of twenty-two thousands shadow clones, the sacrifice of hours of sleep, the crying and the spilling of blood, the knuckles being scrapped and especially…the FIRE OF YOUTH THAT BURNS BRIGHTLY IN ME TODAY!" and with that, Naruto finished the fight with a full frontal kick straight into Neji's face. Excessive? Maybe. Pleasurable? Obviously.

"Ouch…that had to hurt," Lee winced, seeing the scene from one of the back rows, while covered in bandages, he had come to watch Naruto fight, with his teacher, Gai, next to him.

"YOSH! He has taught humility, to Neji…and probably has even taken away his beauty…so you know what that means, Lee?"

"What Gai-sensei?"

"We have a chance at bars now!"

"YOSH!"

"YOSH!"

"Oh, for fuck's sakes be quiet you two!" muttered a red haired girl with a strange brown cap, beneath them.

Hinata couldn't help but cover her mouth, seeing her cousin getting hit on the face by the strength of such a kick. She had seen her father leave, before, and now she was watching the fight, while Hanabi, sitting beside her, had been turning her gaze more and more towards Konohamaru, who had been doing the same. Hinata didn't need a manual to know they had feelings for one another, and now, she actually just needed to ask how it went, and then, maybe, thank whoever helped them come together, as Hanabi had told her about a *medic* with a sharp tongue doing all the confessions for them.

Still, the boy, Naruto, had strange red chakra, as her Byakugan, activated, showed it burning up like it were an ever raging fire, it was even…splitting away from his body, washing over the first rows and…she shuddered, as a malevolent purple one was increasing in intensity, as more waves of red chakra flowed around, the more the purple one grew in the first rows, resonating…

*Naruto Vs Gaara*

Anko had barely arrived in time for the boy's battle with the red-haired Suna ninja, and, as she watched the scene, she couldn't help but feel pride.

Sure, she had never taught him anything, but it was like, down there, there was someone she felt a family connection with. He was, kind of, her Otouto too, and the fact she couldn't speak, nor go near him, was something that pained her, but it did make her smile seeing him serious in his effort.

Until her sharp eyes saw the symbol on the back of his mantle, and the Kumo headband.

Anko knew, for a fact, that the symbol of Yami wasn't something so normal to wear, and the fact that the boy was wearing a Kumo headband…

_Please Kami…I wouldn't survive another Orochimaru breaking my heart._

Hayate looked at the boy, maybe he'd manage before the late afternoon: he just couldn't wait to go see his own child. Was it going to be a nice baby boy or maybe a girl? As he thought about that, one thing was clear: he'd never, ever, allow the child to dress in full black. Or have pet snakes.

"Begin," as Hayate moved away, he did that just in time, as the chains from Naruto's side impacted against a sand fist from the other's side.

The two Jinchuuriki faced each other off, without words, without talking.

Naruto dashed straight ahead, his Ninjato in hand as it overcharged with electricity, while the sand from Gaara's gourd spewed forth in a sort of tornado-like motion, creating a sphere of defense for the boy, a sphere that, however, was much to the red-head's dismay cut open by the electricity of the boy.

"Don't you know that lightning cracks earth?" Naruto whispered, as sand engulfed his body, while at the same time the chakra chains converged on Gaara's sphere.

"Suna Shigure and Sabaku Sōsō never left anyone alive, Naruto," Gaara whispered, as sand covered the boy from head to toe, before it imploded, making the chains disappear, as blood gushed out of the sand, dropping a body on the ground...dead.

Anko, her dango stick fallen from her mouth, fell to her knees.

Sakura, bringing her hands to her mouth, gasped as water filled her eyes.

Yakumo, shocked, fainted.

Sai, keeping his facial muscles normal, looked around before rolling his eyes over, so easy to see where he had gone.

A, and B, opened their mouths in disbelief. Darui narrowed them, instead.

Kushina, in the rows, went mad.

The seals burning her right hand started to sizzle, and go off, as that red-haired boy had killed her son.

In front of her, in front of Konoha, in front of everyone, of Minato and of everyone else, her little boy had been killed and she wanted revenge...

"Kushina-san, please do calm down," one of the Anbus assigned to guard her, received as a reply a chakra chain through the stomach, tearing him apart as the crowd began to scream.

"MY SON DIED! I AM NOT GOING TO STAY CALM ANYMORE!"

At that scream, Minato paled.

Not only because Kushina's right hand turned into a full out Kyuubi-like claw, albeit at human size, but because at the same time, he jumped out of the kage box, as it exploded into smithereens, while somewhere, far off, a flash of bright red light exploded, signaling the hidden Shinobis of Sand and Sound to attack and lay siege to the city.

At the same time, music echoed through the Arena, sending most of the civilian population to sleep, but not the more strong Jounins, like Kakashi and Gai, who suddenly found themselves side to side.

The Raikage, B and Darui had been swift, obviously, in getting out of harm's way. They jumped immediately down, where C and his Genins were, and where Saya had arrived after being given an antidote.

"What's going on, Raikage-sama?" C queried, seeing how explosions were heard in the far distance.

"I think Konoha's under attack! And someone took the Hokage head-on!"

"Cool…not…" Darui said as he then looked at the field, where the boy, the red-haired boy, was being together with other two ninjas from Suna, and was looking a bit desperate around…there was no corpse of Naruto in there, but there was a really angry red-haired woman, who was flinging her chains at the trio, with a really murderous glare and attitude, not realizing that the corpse there seemed to belong to someone else, someone hideously covered in scars.

"He's not there…he's still alive," C muttered, "Actually…he's behind us?"

"Aw…you ruined my surprise, C-san!" Naruto pouted, as he slowly got down from the upper rows, with a big wide smile.

"Now guys, while Orochimaru gets to kick the Hokage's ass, how about I tell you the good news?" Naruto said, as he sat down leisurely, in one of the now free rows, grabbing a dango stick while he was at that from a purple haired Kunoichi, who made Naruto gulp slightly, as she *was* staring at him with a murderous glare.

"Hey Anko-Oneechan," he muttered before getting a slap to the face by the woman.

"You made me think you had died down there to sand boy!" the woman yelled, "I was nearly sure it was the case this time! Damn you!" as she began crying, she hugged him, "Stupid brat! Stupid, stupid brat!"

"Ehm…you mind boy?" the Raikage was, actually, in no hurry, but he kind of wanted to avoid the charging in Suna Nins and Oto Nins, so, he gestured to Naruto to make haste, and he did have to question the boy's charms, how did he manage to sway woman older than him, when he, the Raikage, was still single? He had to ask his son, later on. Maybe it was the whisker's marks?

"Oh yes, with this," handing a contract over to the Raikage, "Naruto, the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki, is given back to Kumo three years in advance, it has been signed and approved by the new Hokage of Konoha, the Godaime Danzo and by the entire council!" as Naruto smiled, making a really wide one at that, the first thought was of sheer shock, then surprise, then…

"Bro, we'll get explanations later on, now get that paper safe, and let us go!" as B got the Raikage out of his surprise, A nodded, placing the paper in the safest place a half-naked wide chested man could think of…the internal pocket of his Hokage's vest.

"The Kazekage?" Darui queried, "It's not cool if he's not helping."

"He's dead, killed by Orochimaru," Naruto said, as he moved, slowly, out of Anko's *choking* hold grasp, "I had the info a month ago, but..."

"You WHAT!" Anko screeched, "How did you know that!"

"Well…I might have tortured some Oto guys, but really, now *is* not the time, Kuro's coming to take us out of here." Naruto said, as B and A winced at the words *torture*, "And he'll be royally pissed if we make him wait. He's Kuro the Wind Snake after all!"

"Naruto!" the voice that yelled at him was that of Kakashi, who had jumped in next to them, "can you please wake up the Genins? They need to evacuate the civilians to the safe bunkers! And why is Anko trying to kill you?"

"He knew about the invasion! Months before!" Anko screeched, "And he didn't tell his Oneechan about it!"

"It was my wild card to get free from here!" Naruto yelled back, jumping backwards, "I had this knowledge, the location of Katsumi, and I even have an ARMY of trained and highly lethal SNAKES at my command, so, for the love of Kami, all was to be FREE TO LEAVE if dealing with Danzo didn't work! Furthermore, Danzo was fine with this, and he's the new Hokage,"

"WHAT!" the screech came from Kakashi, he didn't expect that.

"No time to explain! Kuro's coming to extract us." Naruto replied, as he started moving towards the exit, but he did summon some Kage Bunshins to wake up the Genins and, because of that, Kakashi said nothing.

"Well…this is goodbye then?" as Kakashi queried that, albeit there was an invasion on, Naruto turned his gaze to the silver-haired Jounin, and chuckled.

"Not yet, there's still an alliance on between Kumo and Konoha, and what good is an army of highly trained and lethal snakes, if you don't use it? Let's get moving, or Yoru's going to get all the fun!"

*Council – Half an hour before*

"So, we are all united here to press the charges against Minato Namikaze," Danzo spoke, as next to him, a Kage Bunshin of Naruto stood, swiftly depositing scrolls upon scrolls on the council's desk, before waiting for the general expression of the council people to turn from normal, to shocked, to green, to pale white.

"He…if this gets out to the land of iron, they'll swoop down on us!" Homura screeched, literally, as Naruto grinned, turning his eye to Danzo, who smiled.

The fact that the *Yami of the Shinobis* smiled made the council stop, for a second, from even breathing.

"It won't. We will release Naruto three years prior, after the chuunin's tournament, he will be left to go back to Kumo and in exchange Naruto will not speak about said event. The land of iron won't need to be called, and everything will be fine. Furthermore, there are *more* charges that need to be pressed on the Hokage, concerning cruelty, misusage of Hokage's power to order assassinations, misusage of seals on Konoha shinobi, and many more…more than enough to remove him from charge…even mistreating his own son, and using him as a mean for power, through the use of the Kyuubi…sealed in him"

Shikaku narrowed his eyes, before turning to the boy, Naruto, in question.

"All this can be proven, right?" Naruto nodded.

"If you want more, you can query Tsunade Senju-Sama, whose sitting there," pointing at the woman, who had been called from the hospital, "or to Yamato, a Root captain who was following orders. Even Jiraiya-sannin will be able to give more details, once the *Hokage* is removed…and Danzo Shimura takes its place."

"You speak like you can decide, boy!" A civilian councilor spoke, before being shot down by Naruto's gaze.

"I can, that's the condition for me not talking about how Konoha brutalized my stay, covered my body in seals, and even went as far as having a double ready to replace me, while the Kyuubi would be removed from my body, killing me, as the double tried to assassinate the Raikage. All things the Hokage ordered to Danzo, and that are on the desk in front of you. If you do not wish for a political shit storm to hit you lot, you will elect Danzo as your new Godaime Hokage, and you will do so now." Tsume growled, but said nothing, so this was the boy her son called *alpha* of the pack…he did have balls, alright.

"So it's a Do Ut Des…our hands are tied, it seems," Inoichi muttered, as he thought it through.

"You played it well, boy," Tsunade muttered, as the head of the Senju clan, she did have a seat in the council, "Where's the guarantee you will keep your side of the word, however?"

Naruto chuckled, at that, before outright laughing out loud, making the council scowl at the boy's impudence.

"You dare be wary of ME? I have always kept my word, through thick and thin. The ones I shouldn't trust are YOU all, truth is, you don't have a way, because you can't think. I, however, am smarter than you lot, so I've come up with a solution," as someone tried to interrupt, a snake nearly bit the poor guy's head off, "no interrupting me!" the snake retracted into Naruto's forearm, as the boy said again, "there will be a shinobi exchange, some from Kumo will come in Konoha, and some from Konoha will go to Kumo. I expect the Kumo shinobis to be treated with respect, and the same will happen to those of Konoha. They will also serve as *political* hostages, so…that should settle the deal." As Naruto's eyes narrowed, most of the council growled, before Shikaku took word.

"Sound plan…I say we elect Danzo as Godaime and follow through. Will the Raikage do that, however?"

"I'll speak with Otou-san, differently from what you think, he and I do not like to shed our hands in blood, if we can avoid it…" Naruto muttered, shaking his head, before chuckling, "said by an assassin, root trained, Shinobi and Jinchuuriki, this is actually ironic, isn't it?"

"Indeed…we'll have the contract done in a couple of minutes, Hokage Danzo…take your seat." As none in the council objected the Nara clan's head words, Danzo smiled…finally…Hiruzen had been reached.

*Army frontline – Forest border*

"They're coming from the damn trees!" a ninja screeched, as a snake tore in half his skull, the tip of his tail bladed with the half of a Kunai, on his neck, the snake wore a small forehead protector, with the Kanji for *Tail*.

"First Division of TAILS! ENGAGE!" as Yoru yelled that, on top of Scaly-chan's head, the hidden snakes ambushed the mixed groups of sound and sand that had ended up in their perimeter. Snakes emerged from the ground, jumping upwards and tearing holes through ninjas chests like they were cannon balls, while others jumped from up above circling around like highly devastating shurikens, breaking bones upon contact, and slithering away unscathed.

"Where is air support!" as Yoru yelled that, having deflected a Kunai with his own tail, a snake hissed to him that Kuro was heading towards the village.

"Obviously pops got to go to the boss, but I was talking about Shiro-chan!"

"Uncle! I'm coming through!" the white snake _flew_ with small white plumed wings, carrying a string of explosive tags with her tail, she was just a month's old, and was thus a bit smaller than other snakes, but she was trained for war, after all.

She detached the string once having passed some ninjas, as the tags sizzled and exploded, she yelled out.

"I'm the white doom from above, the stalker of the skies, I'm Shiro-chan!"

"Someone tell her…" Yoru didn't finish, as he turned his gaze to a shinobi who was trying to run away, "oh no you don't," dashing through Scaly-chan's long body, gaining speed, Yoru jumped nimbly opening his mouth to release a jet of flames.

"Yoru's sticky venom: Fiery Burning!" the venom, spit out, nebulized, hitting straight ahead and sticking to the enemy's clothes, where it kept burning until the ninja fell on the floor, dead.

A snake hissed urgently from the ground, and Yoru stopped to listen, before nodding.

"Guys! Scaly-chan's in command while I'm gone!" with that, Yoru began dashing elsewhere, the snake's words *had* been grave indeed…giant snakes crushing houses in Konoha? It might turn out bad…the only big snake was his father, Kuro, the others were still growing, and even the biggest, Slithery, couldn't compare to a *siege* snake. They still needed time to grow…that was the problem.

*Army frontline – Ichiraku's ramen*

"Ayame-chan…It's a dream, right?" Teuchi queried to his daughter, since there were snakes, a lot of snakes, slithering their way to protect them until they made it to the civilian refuge.

"I don't know Otou-san…but they *are* helping us…" Ayame replied, as she then screamed, a Kunai trying to meet with her face that was, however, blocked by one of the snakes, a rattlesnake, which had a similar kunai embedded in his tail.

Staring at the Sound ninja, the two began a furious exchange of parries and hits, until, in the end, in a gauge of strength, the rattlesnake rolled his eyes over and bit the Sound Nin on the leg, making him yell and drop his kunai, as the other snakes bit the ninja to death, before returning to escort the two ramen vendors to the refuge.

"Free ramen for you all!" Teuchi declared, and as he said that…the snakes hissed in understanding. At least, Teuchi thought it was them understanding.

*Army frontline – Konoha's main gate-Walls*

"So they're scaling the walls," Kotetsu muttered.

"Nothing gets past us," Izumo replied, as he unleashed his water release.

"Suiton: Mizuame Nabara!" The next moment, the water spewed forward from Izumo's mouth attached itself to the walls that the ninjas were scaling, leaving them immobile, and easy prey to Kotetsu's volleys of Kunais. Meanwhile, down below, at the gates, a group of two Jounin was holding off an army of sound and sand Nins.

"Oh please this is getting boring," Asuma pointed that out, as he sliced through a Sand Nin, "Are they *all* this weak in Oto and Suna?"

"I thought they'd come *more* prepared," Kurenai said, as three sound Nin slit their own throats, prey to one of her Genjutsu.

On a roof, nearby, a Nara sighed, as his shadows snapped the necks of a couple of shinobis, while Inoichi Yamanaka convinced one of the remaining to kill his colleague, and the Akimichi came rolling in for the smashing grand-final.

"Do you think Minato is going to take the news happily?" Tsume growled as she crashed with her Ninken against a division of Sound Nins.

"If you have the time to speak, I suggest you keep on the kill count!" Hiashi, actually, yelled, having lost his neutral face in the heat of the battlefield.

"I'm winning by a long shot, and that's final," Shino's father stated, his bugs devouring chakra and flesh alike, in big clouds.

At that moment, a huge shadow passed over them, and as they all turned their gaze on it, for a brief moment, they rubbed their eyes in disbelief.

*Sumire's side of the battle*

She had been together with Karin, sitting on the bench, watching the fights of her Oniisan going one after the other. No matter how many hits he took, or how battered he seemed, he always stood up, again. The Juken style was worthless to him, as the Genjutsu, but when the red haired Gaara smashed him into a bloody pulp…she couldn't help but scream bringing a hand to her mouth, as her eyes turned watery…she couldn't save him! Karin, standing next to her, sighed. If he had died to Gaara, then it meant he wasn't strong enough for Orochimaru-sama's plans.

Both, however, shivered, together with the other Genins, when a yell came from the tribunes, as Kushina Namikaze jumped into the battle, after having murdered her Anbu guards, with the clear intent to skewer Gaara alive for having killed…her son.

The news was received with shock, but not enough, as soon the Kage's tribune exploded, as everyone inside dashed out, but for different reasons. Karin turned her gaze to the battlefield, narrowing her eyes as she realized just whose body it was, that stood on the ground of the stadium.

The bright red flash on the sky was the signal, as Karin grabbed Sumire, who was nearly crying, and slapped the blue-haired girl, before yelling.

"He's fine…that's someone else corpse, he must have prepared it before hand in a storage seal, and then must have swapped it at the right moment!"

Sumire turned her gaze to the corpse, to the fight of her *mother* with the red-haired Gaara and his siblings, and realized it was the truth. That man had no hair, and was clearly covered in burn scars.

Not like her Oniisan at all.

"He…He's still safe, I can save him!" Sumire darted up, looking around for where her brother was.

"Who can you still save?" Sasuke scowled, staring at the duo with his eyes narrowing.

"Yeah! Who…" Kiba, having upwards and near the two, received a quick injection from Karin's swift hand, straight in the shoulder, sending the Inuzuka boy to sleep, while Sasuke, on the other hand, prepared a Kunai, staring at the two with his sharingan activated.

"What is the meaning of this?" He exclaimed, jumping onto Kiba's slumping form trying to get his own kunai at Karin's neck, only to twist to the side when Sumire's hands sent a blade of wind at him.

In the short quarters, the blade of wind gushed straight through forcing Tenten to jump to the side to avoid it.

"Hey! What's your…" the girl, dressed in a chinese-like dress, couldn't say much more, as the two Oto ninjas threw down a smoke bomb, disappearing from view when it dispersed.

"Oto is declaring war on Konoha, that's what's going on!" Sasuke yelled, before dashing off to see Kakashi, he was going to fight off those damn Oto-Nins, and prove his strengths. Thank Kami the idiot Naruto had died.

Sumire, on the other hand, had run together with Karin out of the stadium. They had started dashing from rooftop to rooftop, in an effort to find out where Naruto had gone.

"I'll sense him, you keep an eye out for me," Karin muttered, closing her eyes.

"Kagura Shingan" her mind's eye opened slowly, increasing in range until all of Konoha, and beyond, was covered. She saw the sound troops and the sand troops stationed in the woods under attack by unknown forces, she saw a giant chakra source coming straight from the city's gate, she saw the small fights and the bigger fights, and finally, she saw a burning fire of chakra, one so big and vast that it made her gasp on her weakness, so wide and shimmering in light that it looked like the ocean under a sunny day. So grand, that she was in love.

"He's…He's…oh Kami he's a hunk! He's going near the main gate! I'm in love!" as she opened her eyes, her face red, with a small blood dribble from her nose, Sumire was staring at her, with a frown.

"He's my brother Karin-chan! No touching him!" then, after pouting for a second, Sumire turned to the main gate, and…

"Kuro has grown…" she muttered, as Karin too realized just *what* she was seeing.

"Damn…we need to go find Sasuke then," Karin replied, as she realized the Uchiha wasn't far behind them, indeed, he was following them, "now this is going to be easy," with a smirk, Karin turned around, throwing senbon needles at the Uchiha who, sharingan in full action, dodged them with the use of a Kunai.

"Sumire! Naruto can wait! First concentrate on the weakling!" as Karin yelled that to the blue-haired girl, she turned around, looking with disgust at Sasuke, her ex friend.

"I am not weak! And Naruto is…" dead, that was what the last of the Uchiha would have wanted to say, had he not been forced to dodge to the side a sickle of wind, created from the blue-haired Oto-nin's Ninjato, who was staring at him with a murderous glare.

"You are weak! Naruto-kun is stronger than you, and he'll always be! You are but a weakling! Weak, weak and weak! He is still alive! Look at him soar on the sky while you crawl on earth, you pathetic trash and vermin!" as Sumire yelled that, pointing at a flying shadow on top of their heads, Sasuke's mouth opened in disbelief.

A giant blue eyed black snake, with orange and purple wings stood flying up in the sky, his size was enormous, easily comparable to that of a small mountain, and as he flew, up high in the sky, his scales reverberated the sunlight, bringing, together with his wings, a sort of multicolored halo on its entire body, and, on top of him, stood the flapping mantle with the kanji *Yami*, and the blond-haired boy he had seen killed by the Suna ninja. Sasuke felt little.

He felt weak.

He felt the desperate need to crawl in a corner at the power the boy, a boy his age, possessed.

"That is what hard work brings, you pathetic excuse of a boy! Last of the Uchiha? Thank Kami! Worthless trash unable of doing anything but scowling!" as Sumire yelled more of that, Karin smirked, well, the girl was as dirty mouthed as Tayuya on her best days…but she knew full well where to hit. The red-haired girl renewed her senbon needle attacks on the Uchiha, who shocked, dodged most, but not all of them, and as one managed to prick his skin, Karin smiled.

"Look at how weak you are…Shinkūken!" Sumire added, this time, Sasuke's legs didn't move, as the wind blade slashed through his chest, making him fall on the ground, frothing from such…such weakness of his.

"If only he trained with a Sannin…like Orochimaru," Karin said, "maybe he could have stood a chance,"

"No way! Orochimaru wouldn't want a weakling like him… Not even I would want to train someone like him, he's better in Konoha, with all the weaklings," Sumire replied, before the girls, winking, turned around to leave. They had done their job, planting the will in Sasuke to become stronger…outside of Konoha.

*Minato Vs Orochimaru*

The fourth Hokage stood on the roof of the arena's building, at his sides four purple walls raised towards the sky, closing them inside a barrier, designed to keep out everyone else. At the corners, four guys stood, keeping up the barrier and keeping themselves inside another barrier, thus being virtually un-attackable. Minato had jumped by instinct out of harm's way, and in mid-air, the Kazekage had thrown him on the rooftop they were currently on, before dashing behind him.

"So…why attack Konoha, Kazekage?" Minato queried, as he went for his Kunai.

"Kukuku…what foolish questions are you making? To destroy it, of course." As the Kazekage said that, raising his right hand, he removed his face, making the Fourth narrow his eyes.

"Orochimaru…you here?"

"Time to destroy the third's legacy in this world, Konoha can burn together with its precious fourth Hokage!" as Orochimaru said that, something flew above them, bringing them under the shadow.

It was a subtle beginning of the battle, as while the Fourth touched the ground, placing a Hiraishin seal on it, he charged head on with his kunai, readying himself for a crescent moon slash, only to be met with the Kusanagi sword that he managed to deflect before the increase in length pierced through his body.

"Did you meet with Naruto?" The Fourth knew that the boy's questions weren't meant for nothing! The damn brat was going to get severely beaten and broken, before being removed of the Kyuubi!

"Interesting boy…a menace, *another me*, a Jinchuuriki. He died to Gaara though, so maybe he's…"

"I'm still alive you baboon!" a voice yelled straight from above their heads.

None of the two highly trained ninjas raised their heads, but Orochimaru's forehead had a vein bulging.

"I'm killing you myself when I get out of here!" the snake-sannin cursed back.

"You can try, but Tsunade-bachan is taking care of the wounded, and I'm taking care of your summons…and you should ask yourself how I can talk to you from above!"

"That's all thanks to my awesomeness, you know," a voice, more profound, hissed.

"So now Orange and Purple feathers are awesome, huh?" Naruto questioned from atop the head of Kuro, who was flying in circles, his tail every now and then descending to *give a slap* to a serpent summon of the enemy side.

"Slap a snake, slap a snake!" Kuro chuckled, "It's like whack a mole, but it's with snakes! Then charge it up and slice it through!" as his wings thrust downward, small cyclones of wind blades erupted upon the battlefield, tearing apart houses and shinobis alike, luckily of the opposition…mostly.

"You're enjoying yourself," Naruto pouted, "And I'm sitting up here doing nothing," as he sat, his legs crossed, on top of Kuro's head, he sighed, "…we're free."

"If we survive today," Kuro replied.

"Where is Kushina, Naruto!" Minato yelled to the boy, who rolled his eyes over, before replying.

"She's fighting off Shukaku, in full form, *behind* you. She's…flinging him against the Hokage's mountain?" Naruto shivered slightly, lowering himself on Kuro's head.

"I'm dead Kuro, remember." He whispered to the snake who silently nodded.

His size was rivaling that of Manda, to say the least, as Orochimaru managed a peek on the giant black snake, who, because of some sort of mutation, clearly, had wide orange and purple feathered wings on his neck area, granting him flight, a feat he *was* using to his advantage, as his tails would lower into a sort of cutting blade whenever he'd meet a snake summon, making them puff out in smoke, as siege snakes didn't tend to look upwards.

"I should have called Manda," Orochimaru muttered, as a rasengan carved itself deeply into his own guts, sending him backwards, to impact against the ground, but as his mouth opened, another Orochimaru emerged, jumping upwards while furiously making hand signs, and, as the forth launched its kunai forward, Orochimaru finished his hand-signs.

"Mandara no Jin!" a horde of snakes appeared around him, deflecting the Fourth's kunai backwards, that still was caught swiftly by Minato himself. As Orochimaru descended, surrounded by the snakes, he began another technique, being out of sight of Minato, who took that moment to try and Hiraishin out of the barrier…a feat that didn't work, as the barrier blocked the chakra from finding other seals outside of it.

*Kushina Vs Sand Brothers*

The murderer, with his red hair, the color of blood, the color of the blood of her son that he had killed, stood there. In the stadium, not caring, as his siblings were talking to him, she charged through. The monster had killed her son, he had to pay! HE HAD TO PAY!

The chain darted forward, striking straight through the sand, at the boy's shoulder, the sight of his own blood made him shaken, as his siblings, yelling something she didn't care about, extracted a giant fan and a wooden puppet. She didn't care about them, no. She had to kill the boy. Kill the boy.

_Kill the murderer. Kill him. Slaughter him. Butcher him._

She charged with her right clawed hand taking on the wind sickles of the eldest girl like it was nothing, the wounds closing up as her Yin release fired the Yin chakra into her body, closing the wounds. It didn't matter to her the hits from various kunais, senbon needles, or poisonous clouds coming from the puppet of the puppeteer, she simply went through her second and third chakra chains swiping the air in front of her, sending both the boy and the girl to the sides falling and rolling on the dirt, unable to fight any longer.

The one in front of her started to transform.

She didn't care. A Jinchuuriki? He had killed her son: she could grab the Kyuubi by the tails and throw him around. This one was Shukaku, one tail. She knew she was going to win…and murder him.

The tails wrapped around Gaara's half formed tail, yanking him away from the ground, and smashing him straight against the wall of the stadium, before breaking through them and, using four of her chains as support to rise above the wreckage, holding him down with two more while she began, with a final third, to pierce at the red haired boy in various points.

"You killed my son, I'm killing you. You shouldn't have killed my Naru-chan. Naru-chan isn't going to smile now, say Kaa-san, he's not here anymore, you killed him, you monster, you die now, you know you are going to die now because yes I'm killing you and you know that…" as she blabbered, hitting him, again and again, making him bleed, making him realize just how his sand's absolute defense was nothing, Gaara lost it, he'd rather go all out than die that way…and the woman scared him. It even scared Shukaku, who was the bloodthirsty and feral Raccoon.

In an explosion of sand, Kushina was propelled backwards, but thanks to her chains, she didn't lose her ground too much. However, Shukaku managed to free himself, and in his size, rose forward.

"DAMN! And *I* thought I was the mad…" he didn't finish the sentence, as the Bijuu had its neck surrounded by chains of chakra, and pulled against the Hokage's mountain, his face impacting against the strong rock of it…and on the other side, were the civilian's refuges were, making them cry out in despair as the rocks were creaking.

Kushina didn't care: the murderer was going to die. She pulled her chains once more, not caring that her chakra was dwindling, she wanted to kill him, and she would kill him.

"Naru-chan, Kaa-san is coming! I'll kill him and I'll be there for you!" she yelled to no-one in particular, probably thinking Naru-chan was still alive, already removing the thought, the *mad* thought of him being dead.

"Fūton: Renkūdan!" Shukaku was the Ichibi, he was the weakest out of all tailed beasts, but that didn't mean he was meant to be *Trashed* around by a mad red-haired woman, and furthermore, he wasn't intending to die having his head split open like a melon against a mountain, it would be... embarrassing, to explain at his reincarnation.

The giant air bullets dashed from his mouth straight at the woman, who, roaring back at him, flung seven of her chains at them, forming a sort of chain-shield and deflecting it harmlessly off, before piercing through the raccoon's right leg, pushing him to the side and making him lose his foothold, before landing on his head, where the sleeping form of Gaara was.

"No…NO!" as the Ichibi tried to get to his feet, feeling his strengths sapped away by the chains, he felt his head being split apart, as more chains landed straight through his head, searing pain shooting forward his all body, as he collapsed into sand, returning inside the boy as Gaara, falling down from the higher position he was in, opened his eyes…and prayed to Kami for his salvation.

Kushina's chain darted forward, binding the red haired boy in all of his body, swirling around him scratching and tearing his skin, like they were flailing him alive.

"You killed my Naru-chan," She whispered, her chains bringing Gaara close to her, where her right claw was ready to pierce the boy's body.

"You're a bad boy…and I will make you suffer for killing my little baby," she whispered, again, as she started flinging the boy's body on the rock, repeatedly smashing it against walls, the ground, her chains, and even her claw piercing him, until, in a mess of blood and meat, she grinned.

"Still alive…but my Naru-chan is not…so you'll die…" as her chains prepared themselves, like sickles, ready to chop the boy's head off, blades of wind gushed forward, as Kushina was forced to make a small jump behind. In time for her chains to strangely remove themselves from the boy, strange chakra strings attached to them, as Temari, on her fan, and using it like a sort of *flying* carpet, grabbed Gaara quickly, while Kankuro stayed behind.

"Run with Gaara!" Kankuro yelled, as he stared deep into the woman's maddened face…Crow was empty of weapons, so it was the time for Kuroari.

As the puppet dashed forward, throwing needles and opening his thorax up to engulf the woman, Kushina started laughing, her chains falling down on the puppet, as the needles hitting her slowly fell off her body, the wounds closing up, as half of her face began turning feral in nature.

"Kill you all…Naru-chan wants you dead…" then Kankuro saw a blur, as the woman, with impossible speed, sliced through his chest with her claw, her mouth showing fangs that bit down on the puppeteers shoulder, making him scream in pain as he made a poisonous gas explode in short range, causing Kushina to cough, for the smoke, and not the poison, and granting him, at least, room to jump backwards, albeit he, on the other hand, wasn't immune to the poison itself.

"Well…damn it hurts," he whispered, holding his bleeding shoulder and chest, as the woman eyed him, before turning her gaze to where Temari, and Gaara, were.

"No running away…Naru-chan doesn't want that." She growled, swiftly running behind the flying duo.

Up on the giant flying metal fan, Temari was holding her brother in her arms, looking at the sorry state he was in.

"She did a number on you, huh? Don't worry, I'll get you out of here…Kankuro's getting us time, the fool." She muttered the last part with a hint of sadness: probably he was already dead, as she could hear it, the rattling of chains, straight behind her…and then suddenly stopping.

"NARU-CHAN!"

*Naruto*

He groaned, hard. Kuro was forced to keep flying, because, otherwise, his tail would touch the ground. As he was circling all around the sight of the battle, Naruto could see, from far away, the Hachibi and the Raikage fighting off the remaining Suna and Oto ninjas, the clouds, up above, had already started twirling of a dark grey shade, as clouds had begun to form.

"If it rains, I'll have to get away," Kuro pointed that out before, as wet feathers did not bode well with flying.

Now, however, the problem was another. Kuro thrust to the side his wings, avoiding the chains that would have, otherwise, circled around his body.

"That woman's crazy I tell you!" Kuro yelled, as he flew higher above, "Hold on tightly!" he added, as Naruto nodded, grabbing onto the snake's head and using chakra to keep himself afloat.

"We're going above the clouds!" Naruto could barely exclaim that, that they passed through…he didn't know clouds were cold, and wet.

"You alright with the wings?" Naruto queried with a yell, as Kuro hissed once, the sign that yes, it was fine.

"You know…I think you're the one doing this." Naruto said, after a while that Kuro had been circling around, and had started to form darker and darker clouds where he flew.

"You think that?" Kuro muttered, turning his thoughtful mind on the feat.

"Could it be the wind chakra? You're using it too to stay afloat, right?" Naruto noted, "then it could have *this* side effect…you're collecting clouds!" he added.

"Great…I bring the rain on the parties...everyone is going to invite me to their weddings and birthdays now."

"Even if you bring the rain, you have a sparkling personality, so I'm sure it levels it out," Naruto replied with a chuckle…then something gave him an idea.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" He muttered to Kuro.

"I'm thinking about ramen," the snake replied.

"Except that!" Naruto rolled his eyes, sighing, "We could try a NaruKuro Combine! I channel the electric chakra, you go with the wind, and let's see what happens if we discharge on the cloud below us!"

"…testing Jutsu on a battlefield? Sounds stupid enough for me!" Kuro replied with a chuckle.

*Minato Vs Orochimaru*

"Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei" those words echoed from behind the snake barrier, that no matter how big a Rasengan the Fourth used, didn't seem to work in lowering the snakes number. He had placed seals for his Hiraishin all over his side of the roof, effectively becoming a flash to avoid the snakes numerous spitting of swords and kunais at him, but at the same time being unable to make too many dents on the snake wall.

As Orochimaru finished the words, three coffins began to slowly emerge from the ground, one after the other, as the snake Sannin chuckled: it was time for a happy reunion.

"Minato-kun… Why don't you look who I brought to the party?" Orochimaru spoke with a teasing tone, as the snake wall descended, the Fourth Hokage stared in front of him, and his eyes bulged in shock.

The first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, founder of Konoha, stood there in his red armor, his raven hair flowing gently behind him, as he nearly lifelessly stood, his gaze pointed in front of him.

The second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, brother of the first Hokage and creator of the village infrastructure, stood there too, his blue armor stood shining, as always, as his fur white neck warmer stood on his shoulder, staring, him too, ahead lifelessly.

The third Hokage, the God of the Shinobis, Hiruzen Sarutobi, stood there too. His face and his lineament, differently from the other two, seemed harsher as he stared into the blond haired man in front of him. He was in his black ninja armor, the same he had been laid to rest with, the moment he had sealed the Kyuubi inside of Naruto…and he spoke.

"Minato…I am ashamed for having chosen you," he spat out, anger flaring out so much, that even Orochimaru couldn't help it, but let the man finish his rant, "you fell to the lust of power, I saw your actions reverberate through the otherworld. I saw the pain you inflicted on your own son, and for that, I will show you no mercy."

"It had to be done!" Minato yelled back, "He risked destroying the village, if left alone!"

"You FOOL!" Hiruzen yelled, "You used strength instead of words, you used hate and anger instead of love. Look around! Konoha is being saved not by you, but by Danzo! He understood in his blindness far more than you could! Look around! LOOK AROUND and see the city be saved by Kumogakure and by Naruto, yes, Minato, look around. Even when brought down to servitude, your son is thinking about others, instead of himself…A pity I never could meet him in life." With those words, Minato's teeth gritted violently, as he unrolled three scrolls in front of him.

"I AM THE GOOD GUY!" as he roared that, explosions scattered on the entirety of the roof the Kunais for his Hiraishin technique, "And I will not hear the words of Orochimaru's puppet!"

Orochimaru laughed, as he implanted the Kunai in the third Hokage, who dashed immediately off, even without the snake Sannin having to order him to attack the fourth.

"He's body is captured, but his words are his to say!" Orochimaru said, as the second and first Hokage, soon joined the fray.

"Kokuangyo no Jutsu!" the second Hokage brought darkness in the field, while the first, on the other hand, brought the field itself.

"Mokuton Hijutsu: Jukai Kōtan!" as a forest grew in utter darkness, Minato lost his bearings, but not before barely dodging a stream of thick mud coming from the third's mouth.

"Doton: Doryū Taiga! Doton: Doryūdan! Katon: Karyūdan!" the mud soon became a river, a river than sprouted a dragon's mouth that shoot forward bullets of mud, that, with the aid of a fire breath, became incendiary.

Minato screamed, for a moment, before using Hiraishin to go somewhere else, and realizing, in the darkness he was in, that he was falling downwards, probably a tree's growth had moved the kunai.

He switched place in an instant, with another one, just to feel a sharp kick on the side of his body, and then another one, as a set of brutal Taijutsu moves harshly punished him without giving him relief, until he manage to concentrate and disappear, to reappear elsewhere, always in the darkness. This time, however, he had a rasengan ready to spin around, and as he felt with a grin that he had, indeed, hit someone, he frowned, as the rasengan passed straight through the target, before receiving a kick on the back.

"Such a pity! You hit the second Hokage, but the Edo Tensei makes the body indestructible, and so…it regenerates Kukuku," Orochimaru chuckled, as he watched with amusement the fourth being hit and battered by the three Hokage's before him.

The next moment, he stopped chuckling, as one the fourth grabbed him by the shoulders.

Same thing that happened for the remaining three Hokage, as shadow clones emerged from their hiding places, grabbing each one of them.

"Wh…You waited for me to…" to talk, so that he knew where everyone was the moment he intended to strike.

"Shiki Fūjin!" the hand of the shinigami, appearing behind Minato, the real one, appeared also through every one of his shadow clones, hitting straight into the body of the Hokages, and of Orochimaru himself.

"You're going to die too!" Orochimaru ranted, as he could feel his body come to a halt, he couldn't slither away from this, but he could damn hell try!

"So be it! I will not have you destroy the village!" Minato yelled, "Remove the barrier, or die, Orochimaru!" and at that, the Snake sannin's eyes grew wide, he was being forced, could he pull the stunt again? If the barrier was removed, there was no guarantee Minato would actually remove his hands before reinforcements arrived, the battle was going awry and the sound four weren't probably going to cut it against the Raikage and his bodyguards. He wanted to destroy Konoha, and damage to the village, he had done. He wanted to humiliate the Hokage, and well…he did, Sasuke Uchiha was meant to be retrieved, together with Naruto. Orochimaru kind of hoped Karin had managed at least to convince the Uchiha boy, with her sensor's ability at least to track him down, as he had a hunch Naruto wouldn't be that easy to convince, but that was why he had let Katsumi do the job...if she failed, she was expendable.

Orochimaru's gaze darted to the sound four, all concentrated on the barrier, maybe if they activated the second level of their curse seals…

"Yonin Shu! Deactivate the barrier!" Orochimaru yelled, as the *sound four*, obeying their master, did so. A second later, a flash of thunder and electricity joined the frame, just as the shadow clones of Minato dispersed, revealing that the original one was the one holding Hiruzen himself, and A, in his trademarked electrical armor, watched the scene with disgust, as the four sound shinobi, the bodyguards of Orochimaru, swiftly moved to protect their target.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Doki!" the pink-haired woman of the four conjured three demon-like entities, as the first two Hokages moved near Orochimaru.

"Orochimaru-sama! The Sound and Sand shinobis of the forest haven't come to reinforce the assault! Those useless trash!" Jirobo exclaimed, slamming a fist on his chest.

"We're leaving!" The Snake Sannin yelled, "I'll deal with those cowards myself!" with that, before A could do anything, the group disappeared into flickers of flames, like they were nothing more than paper sheets, being burned up, except the three Hokages.

As Minato gasped, for air, he realized, much to his dismay that the Genjutsu that blocked his sight was still in place. Worst, the third didn't seem intent on staying still for much more, his will stronger than ever.

"Aren't those two supposed to be dead!" A yelled, as all that Minato could do was begrudgingly let go of Sarutobi, jumping backwards to avoid the retaliation of the third.

"What's going on, huh! I'm hitting them but they're regenerating!" A soared through the battle on the roof, his electric armor enhancing his speed and his strength, and making him able to simply smash through the Mokuton's trees till his fists hit the targets, but even then, it was for nothing. No matter the hits, they kept regenerating.

"Orochimaru summoned the dead!" Minato yelled, "Before I lost my sight, I saw him implant Kunais in their heads!" he added, as he gritted his teeth, he hated being blind.

A growled, before using his Lariat on the head of the second Hokage, who had been engaging him in a Taijutsu battle, and, as his head rolled upwards, the Raikage jumped, grabbing his head and smashing it open, to retrieve a Kunai with a slip of paper attached, tearing it to shreds.

In the same instant, a tree sprouted from behind him, hitting him on the back and sending him to crash against the roof.

"Otou-san! Get away from the roof!" Naruto, from above, yelled, as the clouds had all condense into a single black one, on top of which stood flying Kuro, his wings opened up in the effort of standing still, the cloud was dark and charged with rain, wind, and…electricity.

"Well…" Naruto whispered to Kuro, as he saw, down below, that the Raikage had left the roof and that Minato, unluckily, had been faster than him, leaving the remaining two Hokages just slightly behind, too slow.

"KuroNaruCombine: THUNDER STRIKE VOLLEY!"  as both the snake and Naruto yelled that, electrical chakra surged from Naruto's body, dashing downwards through Kuro's and mixing with the snake's wind chakra, entering the cloud below them, overcharging it until it unleashed a veritable barrage of thunderbolts, one more powerful than the other. The first Hokage, unluckily, was atop one of his mokuton trees, thinking it would speed up his running away. Instead, all it did was to make him the prime target of the thunders that unleashing their heat and energy, managed to reduce the corpse to cinders.

"Damn my son packs a punch!" The Raikage cheered, as even B was actually watching the scene, from the place where he had been safeguarding a bunch of civilians from the enemy ninjas, in his Hachibi form, and even the Bijuu felt the need to comment on it.

**The little bro is a force of nature!**

"That's got to cost a hell of chakra of course,

Let me tell you that the bro's going to need a nurse,

So if we find him a cute one,

We might even score a …" he didn't finish, because the civilians were actually staring at him with murderous glares, as those who had children were in the process of closing their ears with their hands.

"Ops…" B muttered, as he reverted to his normal form.

*Third Hokage*

It was strange, being a body without a mind. Attack, use jutsus, attack, use more jutsus, unlimited chakra made it easy, too easy, to make a lot of damage. Maybe it was also something else that made it easier: Minato had failed him. He had been chosen for his sunny attitude, his seemingly uncorrupt soul. What a blind man Hiruzen had been. Even Orochimaru, maybe, would have caused far less trouble as a Hokage than Minato had caused. For every suffering the boy, Naruto, had suffered, Hiruzen had seen it from the otherworld, and he had cringed, he had yelled and he had cursed the man responsible for this. Hiruzen was certainly to blame, in sealing it inside of him, having taken it from Minato's grasps, but still, while his sins had made him so, Minato had poured salt on the wound. So, he was exacting retribution. For the boy's suffering, he was making the man he had chosen pay. The boy had been a wonder, standing up, fighting for what he believed in, never giving in to pain, abandonment, loss, always fighting for his purpose. He was an inspiration, in truth. The fact that Minato didn't seem to understand, even though Jiraiya himself had tried to make him come to terms with it, wasn't making it any better.

The God of Shinobi felt the thunder hit him thrice, truthfully, wearing a metallic casket on the head wasn't the smarted thing against thunder-affinity users, but truthfully, it had helped. As his head had been fried, the Kunai for control had been removed, but the technique's regeneration power had brought his head back, and with that…his control.

Hiruzen stood thus in front of both the Raikage and Minato, staring at both of them, with his final energies, as Orochimaru had obviously begun recalling the technique.

"Know that the otherworld awaits you, Minato! Repent while you're still in time, because the Shinigami will tear your evil soul apart when you will meet each other!" as the God of Shinobi's final words echoed, his soul freed himself from the technique's control, departing once more.

Then, there was silence in the village… but not for long.

Minato's eyesight returned, with the disappearance of the first Hokage, and with that, he saw Kushina half transformed into a sort of humanoid Kyuubi, howling to the sky, where an enormous winged snake stood, on his head a barely small and distinguishable figure, whose black mantle twirled to the winds of that altitude.

The Raikage, on the other hand, grinned, as, the next moment, a group of Root members appeared around the already battered Minato, placing chakra suppressing seals on his person, with Danzo in tow…wearing Hokage's vestments.

"Minato Namikaze, as the Godaime Hokage…you are sentenced to life imprisonment in the Konoha strict correctional facility, and, it goes without saying, you have been stripped of your rank."

Minato, without chakra, could barely let the shock of the news take the better of him, as someone, strongly, hit him on the back of the head, sending him to unconsciousness.

Kushina Namikaze was stopped, ten minutes later, by the combined might of the Raikage and of the Hachibi Jinchuuriki, and was brought in chains for the murder of the Anbu bodyguards she had been assigned to, clearly mad, she too was sentenced to life imprisonment in the same prison as her husband.

*Afterwards*

Danzo sighed.

He was the Godaime Hokage, yet he had so much paperwork he kind of wondered if, at all, it was such a good thing he had left the shadows of root for the sun of Kage's desk.

One thing, however, he knew. Naruto of Kumogakure was going to become one of the strongest allies of Konoha…

He hoped.

As he stared out from the window, he couldn't help but grin, seeing over a thousand of Naruto's helping out in rebuilding specific sectors. Sure, he had kept to himself important info, that would have helped fight off the invasion, but Danzo wouldn't call the boy on that. He had given his word to let the boy go, and he would let the boy go.

He grinned, since today was, after all, the day Naruto left the village, which meant that, if everything went well…Konoha and Kumo's alliance would soar to the skies. Like the giant black snake he had seen, a wonder of strength and nature, no doubt.

It had taken a single day to organize everything, for Naruto's departure. So there would be no problem whatsoever, and even the Raikage had been happy about it.

Some might not have liked staying without the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, but with Kumo as an ally, a strong ally, there was no need to meddle with it. Furthermore, he could count on the boy to keep his end of the bargain. It was strange, how he felt, actually, the trust, he who usually trusted no-one.

He reviewed the ninjas who had volunteered to go to Kumo, by next month. There was a certain Anko Mitarashi, who was approved, a certain Sakura Haruno, who, however, couldn't go because she still had to actually become a Chuunin level Kunoichi, there actually also was a notice of a certain Teuchi and Ayame Ichiraku, both asking for transfer permission.

Well…Danzo shrugged, today he just felt happy.

Konoha was being rebuilt, Konoha was growing strong.

Minato was safely locked away…

"Danzo-sama!" an Anbu guard entered the office, kneeling down to report.

"What is it?" Danzo queried perplexed.

"The Namikazes…they have both escaped, and captain Yamato is missing too!"

A good day…how fast it turns sour.

**Author's notes.**

…***chuckles*…**

**Q&A**

**Graive the crimson: seems not.**

**Crazyshady: well…it's like playing "Doctor" only more realistic!**

**Dragonrising: Gray Danzo? No! HE's white! He's a pure white paladin of love and kindness!  
Asa Usa: Well…double of Naruto goes with Kushina, Jinchuuriki goes elsewhere.**

**Mysterious blue jay: Thanks! He's a born actor, yep.**

**I hang I rock: I was thinking Jiraiya nearby bringing *Tsunade* together with him.**

**Esparza: Look! Naruto's fine! He's going home! Everything is going to be happy, fine, and nice! Yeahy!**

**(please ignore the fact that it's a sad story, do ignore it) The nibi would take one month to get back to Konoha, so they'd probably meet halfway. Jiraiya is outside the village, doing research on Katsumi's whereabouts…(said girl being in the village, obviously)**

**Fuyutaro: he's the good guy! How can you not understand!**

**Horaiken: did it fail badly enough?**

**Gentleman moriarty: Not yet…soon, but not yet.**

**Dbzsotrum: fate is a cruel mistress…and a bitch. Like my muse.**

**Mzr90: that is something…that we will discover next chapter! (I just gave you a big foreshadowing!)**

**Tamult: I didn't use Kanjis…I just went with the European letters assonances, (I didn't even think I was actually using words that could work, or have meaning, in the Japanese language. Sumire was simply, to me *Sumi*+re (random two letters)…to actually get *Serpent*? …Damn I'm good and I don't even know it. C is awesome in his tranquility. That said, I'm sure everything is going to turn out fine! Eventually.**

**Ezcap1st: No, the Namikaze are famous for scratching the back of their heads when nervous, actually…sort of *father-son* tick.**

**Angeldoctor: well, Minato was busy during the council's talking…and he got the short end of the deal, obviously!**

**Dragonskyt: Well, Minato's idea was having him fight off all the other shinobis during the tournament (knowing full well of Gaara's…*condition*) and then con him to follow him somewhere private, where Yamato, plus him, would subdue the boy into silence. **

**Tzeentch: speaks sadly of madness a god of chaos? Well, now I saw it all…I know it's sad, but sad stories requires sad things...like character's death and Sakura becoming the protagonist.**

…**since someone suggested that, I'm now enjoying teasing the readers with the prospect. **

**I'm kind of thinking about it too, you know, something like ending a chapter with "He stops breathing…he's dead," and then going on a full-out new chapter of 16K words on Sakura's life…I'm sure I'd get more than enough curses it would suffice me.**

**General answers:**

**Sakura remained *asleep* for the reminder of the battlefield. **

**Shikamaru feigned sleep.**

**Naruto had a clone go to the meeting, and he swapped with the dead body of…Dosu, who he had hidden nearby. Naruto escaped the sand through reverse-summoning. Holding the contract with him…he can do that. Actually reverse-summoning where any of his snakes are. A sort of Hiraishin of its own accord, but he hasn't understood it yet. **


	19. Losing

Nineteenth chapter

The sun was warmly basking upon a batch of freshly repaired roofs, courtesy of a hundred Naruto's clones, who thought it would be nice to close the deal with Konoha on good terms. He did after all *refrain* from mentioning an invasion coming, albeit his snakes held the line against the bulk of the force, forcing them to either scatter or stop their doing, there still was some damage, and some lives were lost because of that. Still, everything had been forgiven, as the horrible treatment he had suffered more than enough compensated the few lives, mostly of Konoha shinobi, who had died defending the village, since also some snakes, some far away cousin of Yoru, and a couple of anacondas had given their lives, everything was settled without a fuss. Danzo was actually going to great lengths to have them leave as early as possible, a thing which made the Raikage, and B, quite content with the man…ignoring his past Root leadership and brainwashing of Naruto, it was in the past, after all, a good stone on it and everything was settled.

He was at Konoha's gates, ready to leave, hoping never to return, again, as a kidnapped kid. He wasn't, actually, alone in that endeavor. Albeit those around him were worried about him getting kidnapped again, nobody actually spoke a word. It was, however, funny, seeing how he had strangely found himself, by some sort of casual display, in between B and A, with Darui in front, and C behind with his Genin student Saya Ichigawa.

If he didn't already know it, he'd think they were over-reacting. He was pretty sure he could defend himself, now. He was no longer the crying baby of the first days, chained and bund by ninjas stronger than him. He was strong, he had strong friends, and he had a stronger grasp on his power.

Sure, the fox was still inside of him, ready to escape, killing him thus in the process, but she too stood quiet, after all, some quiet, every now and then, wasn't all that bad.

Naruto stared at the few people who had come to wave him goodbye. First of all was Kakashi, who was actually crying tears as he handed over to him a bottle of grey dye and a mask like the one he wore on his face, plus a collection of Icha-Icha books that made C...curious to have a read on them, later on.

Gai-sensei was in the hospital, together with Lee, who was getting a really delicate operation underway, to become once more able to be a ninja, at least, Yagura had told him that much, before the two had clasped hands together with both their eyes burning, a youthful promise to become stronger!

Ayame and Teuchi were grinning, as they enigmatically told him that he'd hear from them soon, while Anko was actually laughing out loud about being careful in Kumo, lest some pretty girl would grab him and make him *hers*, he was *her* ticket out of hag-hood, and he'd have to wait for her. Naruto had actually blushed at that, slightly, before being handed down a sack of Dangos, a great gift, coming from a Dango addict.

Yakumo had come to bid him goodbye, hugging him with a slight blush too, before looking around afraid of someone coming in, but, finding no-one, she had given him another hug, before professing to him that she'd become strong like him.

Even the new Hokage of Konoha had taken some time, in his busy schedule, to wave goodbye to the group too, before they departed.

One person who hadn't shown up had been Lady Tsunade, something about a really complicated operation, taking place, and Sakura, who was, strangely enough, not present. Naruto mentally shrugged: probably she thought it would be seen as her clinging to him, and she didn't want him to think that.

On his shoulder, after months of separation, Yoru stood lazily taking in the sun, on his neck a headband protector with the kanji for *Tail*, and, in his behavior, he kind of grinned after the group had begun walking.

"Hey boss, it's a pity we'll have to abandon some of the equipment and such a good base in the forest of Death, but, anyway, you think you can convince your father to give some cave *not* hanging in mid-air?" as Yoru spoke, Naruto mused over the question, letting his gaze linger on A who chuckled.

"You know, even *I* feel nervous, slightly, when I have to go on a suspended in the air building," he pointed out, "One day or the other I'm sure those damn steel bars are going to fall, and I'll find myself falling downwards."

"Yo bro! It's time for da talk!

I want to know what that running,

You not talking, nor calling,

Not even a hello,

Now it's time, hey yo!" as B said that, Naruto's gaze turned thoughtful.

"Well…better distance ourselves some more from the village," he whispered, "a good distance, so Otou-san can't run back in a single day," he slowly added.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," the Raikage said, gritting his teeth, as they still kept on going.

"I've got to ask, what's with that necklace?" C queried, as he had seen that thing on Naruto's neck for a while.

"Well, I should have given it back to Tsunade-bachan, but she said I could keep it, since if I was still alive after the invasion, then it meant it was meant to be mine," Naruto replied, with a shrug, "and since I'm now free as a flying snake, there's no need to fret," he slowly added, "if she ever wants it back, she'll come to Kumo…can't wait to get back home," he finished with a smile.

"Pardon me asking, Naruto-san…but why do you look…older?" Saya queried, sure, she still held some antipathy towards the boy, but he had a promised a good explanation, once a bit far from the village.

"I actually thought about that too," Darui said, "If they did something not cool, I'm going back now," he added, his hand on his sword.

"Oh…" Naruto exclaimed, "Well…I did a sort of sauna in Hero Water, in Takigakure, before I…mistakenly destroyed the entire city and the water source," everyone, in the group, paled visibly, "the next day, bam, I was already growing, not stopping, though it should stabilize by the time my body reaches the twenty-five or thirty years mark, well," Naruto shrugged, "I'm not complaining."

"Iron Claw!" this time, however, B raised his hands to protect himself, in instinct…but he wasn't the target. He looked a bit shocked, when he realized it was Naruto, who had been the subject of the iron claw, which the boy had suffered out of surprise, shock, and probably because Yoru had seen it and had jumped out of the way, on Saya's neck.

"Yup, my father *was* of the same accord for a while," Yoru pointed that out, as Saya stared at the snake with a curious look, "hey pretty girl," Yoru replied to her gaze with a snake-grin, "you know some good snake-chans from your village?"

Saya rolled her eyes over, she was not going to play couple hooker with a snake. It was clearly unlady-like.

"Otou-san! What was that for?" Naruto whined, as he got up, cleaning himself out of the dust, as Yoru slowly jumped back onto his neck, basking in the sun.

"You idiot! How can you say that? Damn kid, you're going to age, you know, lose years of life in months, and you can't even be worried about it! *I* am worried about it!" The Raikage's face was flustered, to say the least, and that was shocking, to say even more, "You'll be a thirty years old in aspect and a what? Fourteen years old in years of life? For a shinobi, that means already getting over his prime! It's your life boy: you're losing your life! Act a bit scared, at least! It's like your hiding your pain by not caring at all!"

Naruto stared at his father for a moment, his blue eyes softening, slightly, as he shook his head, before scratching his neck.

"You see Otou-san, it doesn't matter. While I was a prisoner, all I wanted was to return to Kumo, to return home and become the next Raikage. I don't want the position for power, Otou-san, I want to protect the people of Kumo from harm, I want to protect those who can't protect themselves, aging is a plus in this case," at those words, Naruto tried a grin, albeit it seemed sadder, than normal, "because it means I can do more, my muscle mass? It increases swiftly: I've got weights that now surpass those of Lee simply because they grow faster. My chakra coils? Expanding, I've got so much chakra I've got twenty-times your amount, Otou-san, twenty times, I can pretty much pave in chakra the entire surface of Kumogakure, and have enough left to summon Kuro five times," at these words, Saya nearly fainted, "I'm not as strong as you and Bro or Darui and Yugito-Oneechan, or C, but I'm a hard worker, and I can and will get there, and I will do it, I will not have anyone, ever, suffer harm if I can avoid it," the blond-haired boy spoke softly, as he finished his speech, "so I don't care, I can't do anything about it, I know I can't, and that's how it will be. All I can do is look forward to the day you'll be proud to me as your successor, if you'll ever choose me, that is, I'll protect Kumo never the less, even if you choose someone more suited with paperwork."

"Cool," was all that Darui said, as the group kept on walking in a strange silence, albeit the Raikage and B exchanged a single, knowing, glance.

Both got the meaning, clearly, and with that, they both nodded to themselves.

_He's ready._

After a couple of minutes of silence, Yoru made a crack joke concerning a camel and a kangaroo, then the laughter removed all remaining tension from the air, and the group kept on a steady pace of walking towards Kumo.

Two weeks of travel later, they heard a grumble, as the ground was, truthfully, shaking and rocking. C, widening his eyes, was the first to talk.

"There's Yugito, in Bijuu form, running towards us at an overwhelming speed, and she does look pissed," he had barely finished talking, that B cracked his knuckles, before having the Hachibi sprout both hands, and getting into position.

"This brings back memories," Naruto muttered, recalling snow and a train, they were bound to enter *the land of spring* any time soon too, he kind of wondered how it got now.

Few moments later, the impact took place, as Matatabi was forcefully brought on the ground, where her eyes met the silhouette of Naruto, waving at her.

The next moment, the tail's difference between the Hachibi and the Nibi didn't matter anymore, as B was literally flung away by sheer force, and Matatabi…began licking the hell out of the boy.

**What happened? You're alright are you? You little, cuddly, scrawny thing, don't worry, Matatabi-chan will take care of you now.**

The cat's flamed tongue didn't burn the boy, as it was the Bijuu who decided the temperature, but it still did make Naruto laugh, as it tickled.

_Hey!_ Yugito pouted from within, _I want a turn too!_

**Wait in line you!** Matatabi mentally purred, as, like a cat mother, kept on licking Naruto's head until he actually had all hair standing on one side of his face.

"Matatabi…can you let the Naruto go now? It's been two hours," as C pointed that out, the Bijuu rolled her flaming eyes over, as she let her Jinchuuriki take control.

Yugito was flustered, as she silently, but surely, grabbed Naruto and hugged him to near death, his face falling straight into her chest, due to the increase in height, but she didn't seem to care.

"Raikage-sama, I might have left the village unauthorized, and for that…well, I'm ready for my punishment. It's just that, well, I couldn't leave my Otouto in the hands of those bastards!" as she spat that out, she too began licking the boy's hair. It was a reflex.

"I've been licked enough for today, Yugito-oneechan," Naruto whined, but said nothing else as the woman didn't seem intent on stopping.

"I feel there's something you know that we don't Yugito-san," C replied, as all the others were perplexed as well. Except Saya, who had, in the end, fainted in an unlady like manner: a giant flaming cat licking a boy? Good enough to faint.

So, as Yugito turned her gaze to Naruto, who was a bit blue, lacking air to breathe in between her chest, and to Yoru, the snake hissed while rolling his eyes over.

"Boss we're far away from Konoha now, I mean, you can start explaining," Naruto composedly backed out of Yugito's chest, breathing in air, before sitting down silently, and as he did that motion, Yugito was already sitting behind him, still taller than him and thus *enclosing* him within her arms. There was no way she would let her Otouto leave her nearby proximity for the next days.

Then, as everyone sat down, Naruto explained his two years in Konoha. His trainings, his preparations, his skill, he left nothing behind, not even Kabuto's betrayal or his nightly *punishment rounds*, he told everything, every single thing, from the beginning to the end: including the tortures he had been subjected to, the seal's pain and the humiliations.

Yoru had gone to grab some wood to light up a fire, since Naruto was still explaining and no-one was missing a single word of his tale, his long tale. By the time he finished, a small campfire had already been prepared in the center of the sit group of ninjas, who remained quiet for a good time.

"Well…one loses his innocence, eventually, in the world of ninjas…there's no pure white or black, only shades of grey," the Raikage spoke slowly, "and I can't fault you for doing your best to survive, but damn, that woman was messed up!"

"Yeah bro! That had to be some scary shit you went through yoh!" B said.

"I'm not going to sleep tonight," Saya whispered, shivering, "what if she has become a ghost? Rattling chains all around?" as she said that, C raised an eyebrow, before looking around.

The sensor ninja would never admit it, but he prayed that his chakra sensor jutsu would work on ghosts too, and that it would stay as it was right in that moment: devoid of action in the nearby vicinities.

Yugito had held Naruto tighter through some of the passages, and seemed sort of *feral* of letting her Otouto go, scanning the surrounding area repeatedly, her eyes narrowing.

"That's why I was running back to Konoha to save him, even if it meant becoming a missing Nin, I couldn't just…leave him there! With those monsters!" Yugito exclaimed, as A sighed, shaking his head.

"Well, fine then, I'll have you clean the Kumogakure aviary…and don't eat any hawks while you're in there," the Raikage pointed his finger at Yugito, who rolled her eyes over.

"That was Matatabi! She said she wanted to taste one!"

"It was *my* favorite hawk!" the Raikage replied, "and it took weeks to convince the other hawks to go back to the aviary, weeks!"

"Got summon from pops," Yoru muttered, "I'll be back soon boss, don't you worry," he added, giving a light *tail-slap* on Naruto's face, before dispersing in smoke.

"Well, I'll have to find a cave big enough for…Kuro right? He's grown big! Maybe we could have him and the other transfer into that mount, the one near the electricity farms?"

One might have pointed out how electricity shouldn't be something to be farmed, but, in Kumo, storms were not only common, but could also be generated, thus, thanks to lightning rods, one could obtain the energy from a thunderbolt and transform it into electricity. Renewable energies were a nice thing, in Kumogakure.

"Yeah, a couple of more holes in that mountain and they'd get a sort of airport…bro think about it: Snakes airlines," as B suggested that, A's forehead twitched slightly.

"And how would they *fly* with storms all around them?" The Raikage queried, readying his knuckles.

"Well…Kuro can direct clouds at least: he does so unintentionally…so he might move them out of the way?" Naruto suggested.

"That's…a good idea then," A actually looked at his hand, then at B who was actually grinning, saved by the bro's intervention.

"So…Chuunin's exams will be in five years, again," Saya muttered, shaking her head, "I did reach the finals though...but against Naruto-san, I stood no chances…one thing though: how did you avoid the Genjutsu?"

"I never fight alone, Saya-chan," as Naruto pointed that out, snakes slowly slithered their way out of his jacket, "as they bit you, they bit me to make me feel pain and throw me out of the Genjutsu," he added, "but while you are not immune to venoms…I am," he spoke softly, "thus while it's true I need to work on Genjutsu's defenses, I'm pretty able to stand my ground against one. Except Yakumo's, but she's a different story, you defeated her through surprise, because otherwise, she'd have won…her clan's ability is to make Genjutsus real in part or completely."

"Nifty ability," Yugito said, pondering it, "so she could create a Genjutsu illusion of you, and make it real?"

"I…don't know," Naruto mused, "I suppose she could create the physical aspect, but it would last only as long as she'd have chakra to maintain it, and it *would* move according to her whims, but I don't know about speaking, actually."

"Good, there's only one Naru-chan…" Naruto shivered, uncontrollably, turning his pleading gaze to Yugito.

"Please…not that…please. Anything else is fine," he whimpered, like a scared child, as the Nibi Jinchuuriki cursed herself, she hugged him even tighter.

"Sorry Otouto, sorry, you must still have nightmares about that, I'm sorry," as Yugito ruffled his hair, the boy calmed down.

"Well, that *was* one hell of a story. Let's hope it never happens again." As C finished speaking, the Raikage's face turned thoughtful, before muttering.

"Well…I should promote you to Chuunin, Naruto," as he spoke, Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Otou-san?" he queried, not understanding where that sentence came from.

"Son, I saw you battle without breaking a sweat against three of your peers, going above and beyond your duties, and I know you could have just abandoned the village, but you used your own friends to help it out never the less because of the alliance. You kept a cool head, and, trust me on this; you packed a punch with that KuroNaru combine or whatever: you reduced to cinders a Hokage boy! That's a feat many would boast around repeatedly…and you don't. I'd go directly for Jounin promotion, to hell with people yelling favoritism, but I think you need some time in a squad of your peers, so you can learn team working," as the Raikage explained his reasons, Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"But I can work well in teams, Otou-san."

"No, you can work well with Yoru, with Kuro, with snakes, you can work *above* your teammates, but you haven't yet worked *together* with them. You're strong, son, that much, I know. You need to understand that there are people strong like you, only in other areas. So you'll enter a four-man chuunin squad and get some work under the belt."

Naruto's eyes bulged at that, he wasn't displeased about not being directly a Jounin rank, he did say rank was meaningless, all it mattered was strength behind it, still, he felt the need to roll his eyes over, and sigh.

"Fine Otou-san, I'll do what you say…but I want dibs on the pork," at those seemingly in code words, Saya turned to Darui, not understanding, as the white haired man replied.

"Hakkaku's has only so much pork ramen bowls in his shop…they call dibs on the type of ramen they want to eat, and eat only that till it's finished."

Saya shook her head…men.

*Three days later*

They were passing through the land of spring now, which, differently from the first time, sported grass, flowers, and above all other a mild and clement weather. Butterflies flew around from flower to flower, as they took their stay, for once, inside the palace of the Daimyo Yukie Fujikaze, whose real name was truthfully Koyuki; Naruto for once sated his ramen needs, repeatedly, until the supplies of ramen, in the palace, dwindled to a stop, all in one day.

"Well," Koyuki said with a small smile, "that will teach me not to bet something against the boy in the future," she added, as Naruto smiled to her back.

"I never lose a bet, actually. Must be my good luck," the blond-haired boy replied.

"Good luck in games means poor luck in love," C pointed out, as the Daimyo, actually, laughed at that.

"C-san, please, if a girl doesn't see the splendor in Naruto-kun's soul, then she's not a girl, but a blind fool, I wouldn't mind talking about strongly connecting our alliance with Kumo even more through a marriage, actually," Yugito nearly choked on her food, as B and the Raikage had to keep themselves from laughing out loud, as Naruto was actually blushing deep crimson.

"I'm sure Otou-san wouldn't mind…he was lamenting him being single at his age. Kind of wonder if…" Naruto didn't finish the sentence, as the Raikage, his forehead sporting a vein, grabbed him before yelling.

"Iron Claw!" as B actually laughed out hard at that scene, A smirked at his brother, and…

"Double Iron Claw!" throwing the Hachibi Jinchuuriki on the ground, next to his son.

"Well…I think my Otouto still needs time to grow wiser…he *is* still thirteen years old. I'm sure that can wait, clearly, until he's at least of age," as Yugito pointed that out, Koyuki looked with a smile at the Nibi Jinchuuriki, albeit there was a brief spark of electricity going from one's eyes to the other's ones.

"I say, Honorable Elder Sister," a nice way for saying *you old hag*, "that it would be most profitable, for both of our country, but it was only a suggestion," as she said that, she grinned slightly, "and I was not referring, particularly, to Naruto-kun…but now I'm interested in knowing his…skills," when Yugito's face turned terribly red and she began stuttering stuff, Koyuki chuckled, having bested the woman, older than her, with words.

Naruto would have laughed, but he was sleeping in the same palace as Yugito. Heck, even sleeping in the same country as Yugito meant it was unwise to try anything like that.

In the end, after the comfortable supper and the ease, Naruto realized something was wrong.

_Everything is going fine._

**Woe to Kami! All is fine! I'm still in here though. You mean its fine for me to be in here!**

_I mean everything is fine. That's the problem…I'm afraid something bad is going to happen soon, something really bad._

**You should be more optimistic. Come on, life is nice, good, and nothing bad is going to happen. Now go take a nice nap, take away those chains rattling around my cage, and let me go out for a walk.**

_Nice try, but no._

**You evil brooding Emo, that's what you are.**

Naruto rolled his eyes over, but did one of the things the fox had said…he went to peacefully take a nap in his room. All that ramen had made him strangely sleepy, and after three weeks, what could happen? He was no longer in enemy territory now, and he had some sleep to catch up. The room he was in was also strangely warm, and, in a sort of daze from the food and the heat, he decided to drop his jacket on the chair, and remain in his boxers, since it was pleasant going for once to bed half naked, as he slowly closed the windows, and then slid in the futon, that was, strangely, mildly cold. He enjoyed the bed: it was so soft and cool. Some seals briefly flickered under his futon, kanjis for *comfort*, *sleep*, *bliss* slowly glowing.

That's when one of the servants, a blond-spiked man, waited silently for the boy to fall asleep, for his breath to become regular, and, seeing no-one around, carefully slid out of his sleeve a small paper with some markings on. It was a moment moving into the room without even opening the door, after all, his signature technique needed but a marking…

*Sakura-weeks earlier*

She stared at the notice board, her eyes narrowing as she realized, much to her dismay, just what it was written on.

Sasuke Uchiha was being searched, preferably alive, but dead if there was the need, for having left the village of Konohagakure without consent. If dead, his eyes had to be removed, and brought back to the Hokage. On another note, the discovery that the Kazekage had been murdered, and that it had been Orochimaru to force their hand had brought an immediate peace between the two villages, which, with Kumo, were now planning an assault on Otogakure, to close the deal of the Snake-sannin once and for all.

She had heard, once she had woken up in the hospital that Naruto's snake army had fought off the bulk of the invasion, and that the boy himself hadn't died, but had instead supported the shinobis of Konoha together with the Raikage, and all by using a giant, flying, black snake. Obviously, that was the whisper that went together with Orochimaru and the demon boy actually being together in their plans to take their revenge on Konoha.

She shook her head, moving away from it and towards the hospital. She had finally started using chakra, instead of scalpels and tools, and she realized with a small grin that she was improving. She kind of wondered if Naruto was doing the same things as she was, training, improving and getting stronger. Her request to be one of the transferred Kunoichi to Kumo had been refused on the account of her not being a Chuunin level yet, while civilians could go, shinobis had to always be accounted for, especially Genins. Kakashi trained only her and Yagura now, since Sasuke had simply left, and they were bound to soon get *another* replacement. It was starting to circulate as a voice that team seven was cursed, and that *she* was going to be the next one to be replaced.

Voices, always voices, like the one she had heard of Naruto being a demon. He was just misunderstood, and in truth he was extremely kind and gentle, of that much, she was sure. He didn't scowl to life, but did his best, like she was doing, right then and there. She slowly took to the cellar, as always, after changing in a medic-like uniform, of a soft pink hue. It was just as she was turning the corner to get there, that somebody grabbed her by the arm.

"You're coming with me!" she still had her medic-mask on, as the woman, the woman with enormous breasts and two blond ponytails, grabbed her quickly and with inhuman strength brought her inside a room, where another woman, with purple hair, was screaming curses to a man who was in the process of not dying, the machines attached to him bleeping. He had several gushes of blood seeping through his wounds, as it looked like someone had *toyed* with his ribs, the fact he was alive was a medical miracle to begin with.

"This is all your Kami be damned fault, Hayate!" the woman yelled, "Today it had to be, huh! When everyone's still busy you have to go and get critical! I'm not losing you too, you got that, you damn bastard!"

"Bring her out," Tsunade pointed at the woman, "and keep her out." Sakura nodded, as the woman, albeit still screaming at the man, followed Sakura outside. The woman was wearing a hospital dress, as she sat with a medical bracelet that, with its symbols, meant she had just recently given birth.

Sakura sat next to her, slowly removing her mask.

"He's going to make it…right?" Yugao, the name on the bracelet said that much, queried to the girl, the girl who was no more than eleven, and she was an Anbu captain who had just let her emotions take the better of her. Hormones weren't excuses, losing one children to a mad ex-hokage and his furry friend either, seeing Hayate getting mortally wounded…well, he wasn't in her team of Anbus, and Kami be damned he'd let him die before her. They kept it a secret, their relationship, until she got the leave from Anbu…for maternity. She'd have kept it all quiet, but Hayate had, like an idiot, come rushing in the next day to propose to her, marriage. The rest was a blast…She had already gotten the baby's room ready, she was thinking about green and brown, and Hayate about light blue and light red. Then the Hokage had come around…she couldn't lift a finger, as the birth had made her weak. The wet nurse was there, Hayate was outside in the hallway. The next moment he was in, slicing the nurse's throat, grabbing the baby. She had barely screeched that Hayate had run in, tackling the Hokage with shadow clones, but he wouldn't let him…he jumped out of the window, baby within his arms, and as Hayate had followed him, she had slowly managed to get to the window, to watch a fury red-furred beast attack Hayate, beating him to a pulp on the ground, before leaving with the ex Hokage.

When she had woken up…Hayate was in that state: stable, but not improving…so he could only worsen.

Sakura didn't know any of this, she did know someone stole a child killing someone and wounding someone else, but she didn't know all that the woman saw with her own eyes, so she said the only thing she could say, to make the woman calm down.

"I'm sure he will. Tsunade-sannin is a legendary ninja and medic-nin," Sakura whispered to the woman, "he'll be fine in her hands," she added.

"That damned man…" Yugao cursed, "To think he was considered a hero," she added.

"Who?" Sakura queried, hoping it would distract the woman.

"The fourth Kami-be damned Hokage, that's who!" Yugao screeched back at her, "he came in, with his speed and all, and he kidnapped my child! And Hayate, the fool, tried to go against him, out of everyone! It was the red haired beast however that got him…I'm hitting him repeatedly when he gets out of this!" she muttered, clenching her right fist.

Sakura's face contorted into one of shock too.

The fourth Hokage had escaped? He had escaped with a red-haired…oh no, Kami no, he had escaped together with his wife! They had hear the news of his reign of terror, and of how Danzo had brought an end to it thanks to Naruto, who had thus been granted permission to return to Kumo, and this *shinobi exchange* had taken place instead.

Yet…the fourth's wife…out? Free…free to go around…for…for Naruto! She brought a hand to her mouth, tears slowly running down her cheeks.

"You alright?" Yugao queried, she was curious as to why the pink-haired medic who she certainly didn't know about was crying, did she maybe know the fourth on another mean?

"No…Naruto is in danger," she whispered.

*Spring land*

C tensed up for a split second, as something seemed wrong, he was still mulling over his tea, drinking it together with Yoru, as both had found some common ground in spicy foods, and traditional drinks, as he did need a digestive after that lunch, but there was something wrong.

"So, as I was saying, father is having everyone fly straight towards Kumogakure, so he might be unable to do much

He checked the chakra signatures of everyone in the palace. A and B were sparring with ease, outside, and Darui was talking with the palace sword master, while Yugito and Saya were spending some female time together. Naruto was in his room sleeping, his chakra twirling around lazily and…

Twirling around lazily? His chakra that would burn like a damn furnace every day and night, without resting, was twirling around lazily?

The sensor ninja stood up, and dashed, swiftly, towards Naruto's room. He opened it up in a daze, to find a knocked out cold servant, foam in his mouth, and signs of having been restricted.

Naruto…Naruto wasn't there.

"No…not again," the sensor ninja muttered.

"Not again what?" Yoru queried, as he slowly entered the room slithering, only to stop and narrow his eyes.

"YOU LOT!" the black snake hissed at the jacket, as a wriggling mass of small snakes emerged, "what happened here!"

Hisses flew from all the sides, as Yoru's aura, to C's senses, began to burn up in anger, he could see the air around the snake heating up, as his red eyes were bloodshot in fury.

"That's why you execute criminals, you don't baby them in prison," he hissed, before turning to C, "He took him…"

"He…" criminals in prison who could hold a grudge against Naruto? C's eyes opened wide, as he dashed out of there, to warn the Raikage.

As he had barely turned a corner, he nearly crashed on Yugito, who was holding a pillow with a wicked smile while in a purple night Kimono, the type normally used in inns.

"I'm going to sneak on Naruto-kun…he's gone to bed, the poor thing," C gulped down, as Yoru looked at him from his point of view, and then shook his head.

"You're on your own, you *are* the sensor ninja. It was your fault. I'm warning the Raikage and dispersing," with that Yoru took his leave, as Yugito turned her gaze from the snake to C, who started to slightly sweat.

"What did Yoru-san mean?" she queried, raising an eyebrow.

"He…he was captur…" C didn't finish the sentence, as Yugito literally flung him out of the way to dash towards Naruto room, only to find the foaming servant and nothing more. She screamed, out loud, as she got on her knees, barely holding onto the sides of the paper thin door that separated the rooms, she screamed and she cried in pain, until her eyes set on a murderous glare went to the window. It was closed, but she didn't care, she jumped straight through it, smashing it open, as she transformed in mid-air in her Bijuu form.

"**We have to find him!**" she growled, as her sensitive nose began scanning the area, dashing out, in circles, around the palace, like a furious hurricane of flames and destruction.

The Raikage and Killer B had been barely doing a couple of exercise for the Lariat, thinking to start teaching Naruto the move first thing in Kumo, when they heard, and then saw, an overly agitated Nibi dashing out of a window, screaming her heart out as she began furiously looking around.

At that moment, Yoru slithered near them, just as Darui had dashed out to get orders from his Kage.

"What's going on with her:

Is it *the day* that reached her?" B muttered a small rap, before Yoru, hissing, replied.

"He was kidnapped by Minato…in his room. The snakes in his jacket could do nothing: the man came, grabbed him, and disappeared in a flash leaving behind the real attendant. We don't know where he brought him, but I'm going to call pops to try and reverse summon him. Since Naruto isn't near however, you'll have to wait till we get to Kumo, pops and I with the rest of us…that's all," with that, Yoru puffed out of the area, leaving B to clench his fists, as he called out the Hachibi's right arm, to stop Yugito before she could hurt someone.

Yugito couldn't sniff the boy, it was like that time: that time on the bridge, he was there, a moment before, and the next one, gone. She was once more without her Otouto. Whoever kidnapped him was going to pay with blood and gore and death! She was…she felt the Hachibi's hand press on her neck, stopping her, as more of the Eight tails tentacles wrapped around her, stopping her from moving.

"Yugito Nii! As the Raikage of Kumo I order you to calm down, and speak to us," the Raikage ordered staring at the Nibi Jinchuuriki whose eyes, albeit set aflame, seemed to be crying ashes and cinders.

"He…He's not there…again…I lost him again…I'm a failure as a sister," she whispered, slowly getting back to her human form, tears in her eyes, "I should have known not to relax! We weren't in Kumo yet! I…I won't forgive whoever did this, never!"

"It was Namikaze," Darui said, wishing to fill in Yugito, but then biting his tongue, as the area around them seemed to be soaked in a murderous aura.

"He? HE? HE AGAIN?" She literally roared, before B managed to restrain her, once more, albeit he was sweating out for the effort.

"Come on Cat! Stay with us!

We'll save the bro again!

He's going to be fine!

Trust me he'll still be alive!" as B tried a quick rapping, between frowns of effort, Yugito, finally, calmed down.

"I'm going to let you go,

But you have to act calm,

It would sadden the bro,

If you were to lose your charm," as he added that, he slowly let the Hachibi hands reabsorb inside of him, as Yugito stood up, taking a deep breath, before throwing a punch into B's stomach, making the man wince.

"What do we do now?" she spoke, slowly, as she stared at the Raikage, and at C who had barely arrived.

"The bastard is a seal expert," the Raikage spoke from experience, "from chakra suppressing to camouflage, plus his technique, the Hiraishin, makes him able to basically teleport around like a damn prancing queen, if he got free…did he free also that woman too?" as he mused that, Saya made a small scream, her hands on her mouth, paling visibly.

"If he did…Naruto should probably still be alive…I mean, she seemed caring for him, albeit the wrong type," Darui suggested, before C's gaze, turning thoughtful, shivered.

"No, if it's how I thing it is, she's going to kill him, because she won't recognize him," as everyone snapped their heads to C, the medic-nin explained, "If she's suffering from acute mental sickness, in which the losses of dear ones near her has hit her psyche…then she will probably seek comfort in the past memories, searching for similar people who share some aspects in them. Can you honestly say that Naruto of now is the same Naruto of the past? Furthermore, he's wearing a Kumo headband…and you heard how much the woman hated Kumo…she might think he's fake, if he slips on something…and she'll kill him for having dared taking the semblance of her son…" C's face turned slightly green, as he added, then, "I'm snapping that bastard's neck…those bastards neck."

"So what do we do now!" Yugito's question sounded so…despaired, that it trickled down on all of them, until the Raikage spoke.

"We go back to Kumo, on double speed. Then we wait for Kuro to come around. He saved my son once…I just hope he can replicate the feat," with that, the group stared at each other, before starting to hope, hope that maybe, it would all be alright.

*Otogakure*

"*I want to train with strong people to get strong*, damn what a cliché phrase," Sumire muttered, as she recalled the words of the Uchiha, strolling around the Otogakure village like he was a sort of *god*…before she had closed him in a barrel and delivered him to Kabuto.

"Ehi Sumire-chan…you think I can meet your Oniisan again?" Karin replied, the blood dribble on her nose appearing, as she had her chin resting on her open palms, sitting by a table, on the outskirts of Otogakure, near a bar that served as a cover to grab some valuable *experiments*.

"…maybe," Sumire replied, staring at the road next to them, "but still, he's my Oniisan you know, I'm sure he's got a lot of scars from what those monsters did to him," as she pointed that out, Karin made a strange half-stopped chuckle, "what did you say?" Sumire queried, raising an eyebrow.

"N-Nothing Sumire-chan," Karin replied, damn, it slipped out of her tongue!

"No, repeat," Sumire's hand was already going to her Ninjato.

"I said…I'd nurse him back to health…but he's got such a wonderful Imouto he won't need me!" Sumire's gaze turned normal, seconds later, as she slowly went for her strawberry parfait. Karin sighed in relief: she had forgotten just how much the girl's ideals had been twisted by Kabuto and Orochimaru's mind altering.

Still, her brother *was* a hunk, all that chakra…if she could get a slight bite at him, maybe a couple of aphrodisiacs would do the trick? Forbidden romance between sexy nurse and patient? Oh…her nose began gushing out blood, as she stood there, in a half-hazy dream.

There was no need to retrieve the boy with the sound four, Sumire and Karin's words had worked wonders. That was why the four had been tasked with another mission: ambush the Raikage and his group travelling back to Kumo, and kidnap Naruto for Orochimaru's intention… A mission they had failed to complete, as the group had no trace of Naruto with them, probably he had gone ahead, or had stayed behind, and with that, the sound four had been demoted to *debasing* duty.

"Tayuya-chan! Another parfait please!" Sumire said, waving at the red-haired woman who growled just so slightly, as she brought another strawberry parfait to the table, sending swear words that would have made even a sailor shame, she was wearing a bright pink maid uniform...that alone was making her extremely irritated.

Next to them, visitors of the village had just fallen to an overbearing need for sleep, as the toxin inside the food and spiked drinks worked slowly, but without trace, bringing the unaware visitors to their future, as test subjects.

"Tayuya-chan, you saw Sumire's Oniisan?" Karin queried with a chuckle to the only girl in the sound four.

"That frigging blond-haired guy dressed in black?" Sumire's neck hair slowly tensed, "I wouldn't mind a round or two, I suppose he's packing abs under that shirt, ya know, it gets boring around here," Sumire's hair had started defying gravity, in her anger, "and I'm sure he could, ya know, last. Maybe he'd be all flustered if I pick his…" she didn't finish the sentence, as she jumped backwards to avoid a Ninjato flying straight where her head would have been, and slicing through the bar's roof and disappearing into the sky.

"Nobody touches my Oniisan…understood?" she growled slightly, as Tayuya slowly backed away nodding.

"You could share him though!" Karin pouted, as she eeped under the table, to avoid Kunai volley, "Just a thought! It was just a thought!" she screeched afterwards.

"I don't like suggestions," Sumire muttered, before turning her gaze to the sky...was her Oniisan alright now?

*Naruto's location*

"Told you it would work," Minato muttered to Yamato, as they watched the fallen asleep near naked boy, completely chained down inside a giant seal-like pattern, with, on top of him, a snoring red-haired woman, wearing nothing but a prisoner's clothing, her right side completely covered in red fur, and animalistic features like claws or fangs quite pronounced, a baby in a crib stood in another seal, as big as the previous, place eight meters away, "and now let's get this over with, before _she_ wakes up completely." The cave they were in stood black, dark, and damp, but especially, it was underground, the result of the ice's erosion working on the hard rock.

Yamato nodded, as he slowly took his spot in a sort of triangle formation, before beginning the procedure.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes in pain, feeling iron in his mouth.

He felt something grabbing his guts, twisting it, making it twirl, but all he could see was the ground, the hard ground. His hands had been chained, and on his body, his weights plus more weights, rocks maybe? Stood, keeping him down as his chakra, his own, was being sapped away. More than his chakra, however, he felt his own insides burn up, and swell, as the need to puke became something unbearable over the passing of hours, for him. He tried, he sweated as he tried to move, he tried anything, from scratching the hard rock to moving, but except a light tingle of the chains, he got nothing else.

That was until he heard a voice, her voice.

"I smell Naru-chan," the female voice whispered, sniffing the air like an animal, as she growled slightly, "Minato-kun, where is Naru-chan?"

They were there? But…Danzo had brought them into prison! Did they escape? Naruto's eyes bulged in fear, and he began to shiver.

"Naru-chan is coming, Kushina-hime, go back to sleep, and he'll be here soon," as Minato spoke, Naruto tried to get in some words, any words, but found that nothing could be produced, as his mouth had been gagged with metallic chains, making the boy only able to whimper.

"I heard something Minato-kun," the voice came from above him, maybe above all those chains and metal and weights there was…hell?, "Naru-chan is nearby," the voice added.

"Kushina-hime, trust me, look at me, Naru-chan will be coming, but you have to sleep some more, okay?" the bastard, the damn frothing bastard. How did he manage to escape! Who helped him!

"Yes I will! I'm a good Kaa-san, right?"

"That you are Kushina-hime, that you are," with those words, some of the weight atop of him shifted, as he realized, in dread, that the woman was resting atop of him.

The hours that he felt were but minutes, but slowly, they became hours. He felt the pain, in his stomach, rising up until suddenly his face no longer saw the hard rocky ground, but something else.

The red furred face of the Kyuubi, staring at him with his red eyes.

There was nothing but his chains, between him and her, as, unluckily, the gate had been torn from its hinges, as he realized he hadn't even felt it, the pain too grand, only his chains, separating him from the fury of the beast.

"Well…you got free?" Naruto queried, as the chains around him answering his commands, assuming a defensive position around him.

"**So it would seem, albeit my Yang chakra is moving to be absorbed by my Yin one, and then it's going to transfer into a new born baby soon," **the fox spoke softly, **"by the time the transfer will be completed, you will probably die," **the fox added, **"or maybe not. Maybe your Uzumaki vitality will keep you alive. I recall that your *mother* survived my extraction, but she did have something you do not possess, after all,"** as the Kyuubi slowly got on a standing position, her red nine tails twirling around, she looked with a slight saddened expression at the boy.

"Well…so I'm going to die? Like this? Because I went to sleep in a bed without actually being careful of my surroundings! There was Yugito-Oneechan, C-san, there was Otou-san and B, there was Yoru and…" Naruto basically screamed that, his chains twirling around, he was gasping for air, was he really going to die there? Without ever seeing home? Going back to his room? Was this really…it? At that panic scene, the fox grinned.

"**You spoke of enemy territory, boy, but you lacked realization of one thing, there is no territory that does not belong to the enemy," **the fox laughed, as his red stare turned murderous, **"It does not matter where you rest, or not! One moment of distraction has killed the very best shinobis! And you are no exception! So, today, you will die, and I will leave for another sickening whelp," **after saying that, the fox turned around, smiling.

"So I die today, right?" Naruto whispered, shaking his head, staring at the fox, "well…I'm sorry," he added.

"**Sorry? For what?" **the Kyuubi turned around, eying the boy suspiciously.

"For not freeing you, we had a deal, Kyuubi-chan…I respect my deals…I'm sorry I could not free you," the boy spoke slowly, bowing his head, releasing the chains all around him, "if I'm going to die, well, do what you wish, it doesn't matter to me anymore," with those words, the boy sat down, in his mindscape, the summoning scroll of his snakes in his hand. He could do nothing, and certainly reverse summoning wasn't working, as he doubted Kuro wouldn't realize his own contractor's life force was fading, and he had to expel the summoning scroll from within before using it...a gag in the mouth didn't help in that.

The fox moved closer, and sat down, in front of the boy, blue eyes met red eyes, and for a moment, the fox grinned.

"**Do you want to free me, still?" **Naruto nodded.

"**As the white sage snake said…you are interesting, Naruto. I would have been free for but a moment, and I would have set out to destroy Kumo first, to teach you a lesson, I'd have broken the deal first, boy," **Naruto's gaze turned sorrowful, as the fox kept on speaking, **"but you'd probably have fought me to a standstill, that was why you were training, to keep your word and to prepare for its consequences," **Naruto nodded, **"Well…it has been centuries since Madara Uchiha forced the Sharingan, his so fabled Dojutsu, out of me, he used strength, and I gave him an incomplete version, unable to mature without loss and sacrifice and blood, the very same things he made me go through. I can offer you a more complete, so to call, version. It will need to grow. Mind my words, it will need to grow, to be trained, you will face harsh challenges as many will wish to claim it, once they get wind of it, but it will bring you power, but in exchange for this power…you will find me, and you will free me with it."**

"But I'm going to die when you get extracted," Naruto muttered, paling, but Kurama simply laughed.

"**Normally, you would. Still you *are* an Uzumaki…and it was the Third Hokage who sealed me inside of you, the god of Shinobis, the professor…he prepared something for you, Naruto, just for the moment I'd leave your body…may you grow strong, boy…but remember my words: there is no such thing as *Out of enemy territory*." **

Naruto bowed his head, in front of the fox.

"I promise, Kurama-san," He whispered, "I will find you, and I will free you, and nothing will stop me from this task," he finished his words in a mutter, as the fox slowly touched his head, before darkness claimed his entire self.

It was dark, pitch black, in fact. He had a hunch he could even *see* the Shinigami, coming for him, his scythe in hand and a long list of names, and an apple for lunch time. Shinigamis loved apples.

The point was that he didn't see the Shinigami, but he did see a man, a bit elderly, dressed in one of those old shinobi war gears, with a metal casket, staring at him with a sorrowful gaze.

"I sealed some of my chakra in you, boy, if the moment I dreaded would come to be true, Danzo, or who for him, in his path of making you a weapon has deemed you worthless, and has decided to kill you, extracting the demon fox. Because of that, I placed in your seal some bits of Yin and Yang chakra, the same as that of the fox, that will make your heart start beating again, and hopefully, your chakra coils will resume their normal work. It is a vain hope that you have grown happy, I know, and it is a thing that saddens me greatly, that it was one so young to bear such a weight. I am ashamed of myself, for having let this fall upon such frail shoulders…I am sorry, boy," the message seemed pre-recorded, as the man didn't seem to care for Naruto's hand to pass in front of his face, "but Danzo is not stupid, so he will check for your life signs, and would probably kill you, if you were found still breathing. That is why the Yin and Yang chakra will be released in five minutes interval, I know for a fact that with every passing interval, your hope of returning to life *will* be weaker. However, hopefully, you will find a way out of his paws, once awoken. May you find happiness, eventually, that much…I dream," with those final words, darkness engulfed Naruto once more.

The transfer was completed after three days, three days in which Kushina was easily brought to sleep, as once the Yin from her body began leaving her, she stood very still, her Yin release technique keeping her alive, as, after all, she had far less fox's chakra in her than a Jinchuuriki would. The Yin and Yang energies, thanks to Yamato's technique and Mokuton abilities, and through the use of the crystal amulet as a focalizing agent, flew into the infant, the baby they had kidnap after murdering a wet nurse, and knocking out Yugao, an Anbu class, but still no match for them after a difficult birthing like that one. Hayate had tried to follow them, tried being the key term, as he had been sent to crash against the hospital walls by a feral Kushina, who, between her Naru-chan, and her Minato-kun, was pretty much protective.

"It's finished, thank kami," as Minato's voice trembled through the cave, he slowly grabbed the woman of his life down from the mass of chains and weights that held down the boy, now normal, no longer in possess of either Yin or Yang energies from the fox, and thus...hopefully, normal.

Yamato, instead, moved to the baby, who had on his stomach an eight point seal. The baby had purple hair, and was a girl with bright hazel eyes. He scooped her up silently, letting the crystal of the Hokage lay gently on her body, as he moved towards the exit.

"I will take my leave now," as Minato nodded to Yamato's words, he slowly bent down to check the boy's pulse.

_He's dead alright. Now to find Katsumi, the information was hopefully valid._

Namikaze Minato held, in bridal style, his wife, Kushina Namikaze, and slowly left the cavern too, heading towards Oto-gakure. Leaving in the cave a corpse, or so, he believed.

Naruto's eyes opened twenty-five minutes later, gasping for air, as he slowly let it fill and leave his lungs, he looked around, feeling the need to wince more than once. Everything seemed to have increased its definition, but as he closed his eyes, and re-opened them, he realized that, whatever it was, it was already gone. He sighed, slowly trying to stand up, but not managing to, and thus, relaxing. He just had to slowly move his right hand, albeit it was dark now, and he felt famished and thirsty, he just needed to move his right hand and try to bit his thumb.

Slowly, with care and ease, he managed the feat, bringing them his hand forward, whispering on the ground in front of him.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu", he felt searing pain from his nearly empty coil, and muttered curses, as he got nothing but smoke around him. Chakra suppressing seals were in act. He looked at the palm of his hand, feeling the stiffening pain that came with chakra exhaustion, something he had never, ever, felt before.

He had to slither free on his own strength, a strength that was lacking by the second it was just like something was sucking away his remaining strengths, his remaining energies, like it would leave him a dried husk. It was then, that he freed his left arm.

He pushed against the hard rock, trying to get some leverage. His bones creaked under the stress to remove a mountain of weight on him. He sweated like never before as his sight grew hazy, it didn't matter. He had one chance, once all his energies were sapped away, he'd have nothing more to do but stay there, and die. Alone and forgotten by everyone.

He was no longer the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, he was no longer important, needed, would he still be able to stay in the same apartment as B and Yugito and the others? Was he going to lose his place in the world? Would Kumogakure refuse him, now that he was nothing more than a stupid boy with little to no chakra in his body? He was sure they'd pity him. He didn't want their pity.

He had made a mistake, a horrible mistake. He had thought that enemy territory finished when one got away from it, but enemies…enemies can move. He had been an idiot! He swore to himself, right there and then that all those who were his enemies would die rather than be trialed. He was sure Yugito-Oneechan was going to be worried sick for him, he was so sure about it, that the thought made him cringe, as he fell, hard on the face against the ground.

His efforts, however, weren't in vain. He slowly crawled forward a couple of inches, his efforts having loosened some bolt, probably. He gritted his teeth, bit his lips, let blood draw out to keep him awake as the effort was physically taxing, and in his state, near inhuman. Another inch, another second, another star in his vision, he needed to sleep, and he needed it so badly, but not there. Not in a cold cave, away from everyone. A final inch, then his torso came clear, as his boxer slid behind him, like a snake shedding his skin, he emerged from the entangle of metal chains, metal blocks, wooden blocks, wooden trees and shackles that had kept him pinned down, under their combined weight.

He was beaten up, and all he could do was turn around, gasping for air, laying his arms open on the ground, as the cave's ceiling dripped water slowly.

He wasn't out of harm's way, no, he knew it. He just…couldn't muster the strength to move, anymore.

Against all odds, against all hopes…he closed his eyes right there.

His normal, cerulean blue eyes that had no signs of any dojutsu, of anything, and that were simply his eyes, as always. Not that the boy knew…how could he, without a mirror?

He closed his eyes, feeling the silence of the cave, the dripping of water…why was he there?

_The month was too happy…I saw Otou-san, B, Darui, Yugito-Oneechan, everyone was happy, everyone was laughing…I forgot to worry…in a single day…I lost them all…I lost everything because of Him…why?_

As tears began to fall, he just then realized how lonely he was now. There was no fox inside of him, speaking, telling him how to act. There was no fox, at all, to growl, menace him for being Emo, or things like that. He was alone.

In the darkness of the cave, alone he cried.

Until someone found him, and, in silence, puffed him away from there…

A pity Kuro was busy flying with the entire Snake-nins towards Kumogakure, and was already thinking how to deliver the news that Naruto had to be dead…because the reverse-summoning wasn't working.

As tears slowly fell from the snake's eyes, the clouds that followed him began to gently rain upon the landscape, they cried together with their shepherd, after all.

*Konoha*

Danzo hummed happily. He was the Hokage. Everything was going fine and nobody was messing his schedule up. He grinned at the crib, holding the small purple-haired girl inside, letting a small chuckle escape his lips, as Yamato stood next to the crib, his face covered by a bird-mask.

"Well done, Bird…Well done, call her Saki, and have training begin as soon as she can stand, I trust all went as planned," as he finished speaking, Yamato nodded.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," he spoke softly, "Namikaze thought I was on his side, freeing him and his wife. He accepted me as I told him how it would benefit Konoha greatly, to have the Jinchuuriki back, and that I believed in his ways, and that you, Hokage-sama, had been usurping his place: I offered him his wife's sanity and the location of his daughter, as planned, he accepted eagerly, no care for his son's life at all and I planted into him the idea of heading to Amegakure, for refuge," he added.

"Well done, Tree. Remember, with this child…" as Danzo said that, he pointed at the baby, sleeping peacefully in the crib, "I want no mistake like with Monster-kun," he added.

"There will be none, Danzo-sama," Yamato replied.

Danzo nodded, before leaving the Root barracks, musing to himself in a bit of lingering sadness.

_Now for my hand to be dealt, I'll have some ninjas try to track down Naruto too, to show my worry. The hawk messenger should reach Kumo any day now, warning about Minato's escape, and with his speed and Hiraishin, no doubt they'd believe the timing would fit anyway. With that, Konoha will come out clean, Minato will be the unwilling scapegoat, as he'll end up straight into the hands of one of his…old friends, Yamato is under control and nobody can link me to the kidnapping, as Minato did that himself. I've got it all, the Kyuubi, the position, the alliance, without Minato Iwa will loosen up, and with Otogakure wiped out…everything will be fine…It's time for the reign of Danzo to begin! I will pass through the history as the Kind-hearted Hokage! Oh Kami I can't wait! Did the first or the second Hokage have unspeakable dark secrets too? Things they'd never told anyone, that would make people point their fingers at them?_

He slowly reassumed his frown, as he moved through the silent streets of Konoha, staring at the people dashing around, happy and returning to normality after weeks had passed since the invasion. As he reached for the park, he sat down upon a bench, watching the kids play far away, people passing by occasionally to salute him, calling him "Hokage-sama," and thanking him for having saved them from the previous' Hokage's rule.

Seeing that no-one was coming nearby, after a couple of hours, he slowly tapped with his wooden cane, to get one of his Root operatives to move behind him, hiding in the bushes and using a wind Jutsu to communicate from afar, waiting for his daily report.

"Hatake-san is distasted, but shows no signs of sympathy for his former sensei, especially since the news leaked out of the ex-Hokage's treatment of the Jinchuuriki," Danzo nodded, and the operative continued, "Mitarashi Anko is not intending on switching sides, as it would be too troublesome with paperwork, nor has she packed anything dangerous…may I speak freely, Danzo-sama?"

Danzo nodded, it had to be something worrying, it his operative would go that far.

"She packed Dangos: Three hundred packets of Dangos, for her trip." The Yami of Shinobi opened his only visible eye in surprise, before closing it, and nodding for the operative to continue.

"Sakura Haruno is working at the hospital, she has requested Tsunade Senju to be her teacher, and the woman has accepted, she has tried to get in contact with you, Hokage-sama, to inquire upon a mean to write to Naruto, she fears for his safety," Danzo nodded, her fear would turn, no doubt, into a powerful drive against the enemies of the leaf, if coupled with the slug princess teachings.

"I have nothing more to report, Danzo-sama," with that, Danzo nodded, dismissing the boy.

_Naruto helped me in my position…and in death…In death he became one of the strongest allies of Konoha. For him to be honored, Kumo will go to great lengths in exacting its revenge, and they will not soil his actions, by attacking Konoha ever…a pity the boy didn't think that all I needed was him to convince his Otou-san…a feat he did even before leaving…he should have known, the moment he became a worthless tool…I'd discard him._

Danzo chuckled to himself…it was such a good day, this one.

*Minato and Kushina*

Minato had dropped gently his wife to rest, near a tree, by a stream of fresh water. He carefully grabbed his satchel, thanking mentally Yamato for handing him some shinobi gear when busting out of prison, before proceeding to give a sip to Kushina's lips, she seemed so tired, in her sleep, but she hadn't woken up yet, so all he could was wait for her, and then, they'd go to Otogakure, to rescue their daughter from Orochimaru. A thing that made him even angrier was that the boy knew where Katsumi was. He knew and he hid it to him. Now he was dead, and finally the earth was freed from such a heartless monster such as him, Minato had done the world a service, he was sure about it. First, they'd get Katsumi back from Orochimaru, that blue haired girl should have made his brain tick, but it didn't, damn the boy, it was his entire fault, for distracting him! He should have kicked the boy's corpse a bit, or broke his neck in pieces, instead of simply leaving him there. He was dead, of that he was sure, no pulse, no heartbeat, but still…he should have dropped the body next to feral beasts…so that they would chew upon it and make him suffer.

A slow moan made him turn his head, as Kushina was the source, the woman, slowly, opened her eyes, to reveal her normal green eyes, a soft gaze, as she brought a hand to her forehead, muttering…

"What an headache, Minato…is the Kyuubi defeated!" the last question, she said while rising to her feet, before wobbling and falling back to sit, gritting her teeth, looking around, "We are not in Konoha, honey, and why do you look so old?" she queried again.

Honey, he had stopped being called that for a long, long time, somewhere after Katsumi had turned five to be precise.

"You…You don't remember?" Minato queried, looking shocked at his wife, her eyes clearly perplexed.

"No…all I know is that the Kyuubi was coming…then a masked man came…he killed Hiruzen-san's wife! Is he fine? What's going on Minato, but more importantly…where are we? And why are we not in Konoha?"

Minato smiled, warmly…

"I'll fill you in, dear."

*Naruto*

Naruto opened his eyes to the slithering of snakes. He opened it to the feeling of pain running through his entire body, as all of his muscles ached, terribly. He had never suffered from a chakra exhaustion symptom before. That, however, wasn't the feat that was worrying him. He had thought that Kuro had come to save him that he'd be saved by his friend. So why was he seeing white, instead of black?

"So you woke up…I was thinking feeding you to my young would soon become more interesting than seeing you sleep," the giant white snake spoke, as he slithered back onto his throne, crushing under his weight his *young* not caring for them. They were weak for not having moved faster, the strong would survive and eat them, becoming stronger.

Naruto slowly got up, if he stayed down, he had a feeling he'd be eaten too. This wasn't Kuro and his attitudes, or Yoru, or Shiro, or any of his snakes…This one was Hakuja Sannin, the white snake sage, and he had already been bitten completely over once, by his snakes…would he survive the wounds again, without the Kyuubi in him?

"You are wondering why you're here, in my domain," the snake spoke, while Naruto, truthfully, just wanted to leave alive, "well, if you wish to leave, you may…" the Sage added, staring into Naruto's eyes, which bulged, could he read his mind?

"No, I cannot," the snake chuckled, as toying with the boy was interesting, "but I sense your movements, your heartbeats, I see the air around you shiver and tremble, you want to leave…do you not want power, now that you lost the Kyuubi?" as he queried that, Naruto gulped. How did he know? How could he know!

"I will not go against my beliefs," Naruto meekly replied, he was going to die there, he knew, eaten by the giant white snake without even being able to use a jutsu. Couldn't they just have a match tomorrow?

"And I will not spurn you against them," the Sage replied, hissing, "You are…interesting, Naruto, what changes will you bring, with your power? What will you do, with what I will offer you? However…you will not be granted permission to leave this cave, ever, until you will have mastered all that I have to teach you, and when you do leave…you will realize how my words were right, and yours were wrong. Mine is the voice of nature, and of truth: the strong eat the weak, the strong survive the weak and the weak suffer the strong and are eaten by the strong." Naruto…he shook his head.

"No? You dare to disagree with I who can kill you? Speak then," Hakuja hissed, as the boy, slowly, and hesitantly, spoke.

"If you have a weak snake and a strong snake…the strong snake eats the weak snake. So you have a strong snake. If you train the weak snake to become strong, and have the strong snake protect him from harm until he is strong. The strong snake will grow by protecting the weak, and the weak will be able to grow and become strong. So you will have a stronger snake and a strong snake…" Hakuja laughed, at the boy's words, before dashing straight ahead, hitting with his head Naruto, and sending him to crash against the cave's ground, before spinning around and catching him inside his coils, starting to press against him.

"That is stupid. Do you agree?" as pain seared through Naruto's body, he yelled back.

"No!"

The crushing became more intense, as Naruto could feel the snake had no intention at all to back off, he'd kill him, for all his being *interesting* didn't work to save his skin from the snake's anger.

"That is stupid, do you agree?" The snake hissed once more, as Naruto could feel his ribs starting to snap, sending rivers of pain inside his body.

"NO!" Naruto yelled once more.

The crushing this time smashed his legs, leaving bloody pulps behind him.

"Do you agree!" the snake hissed once more, his eyes blood shot in fury, as his face loomed over the boy.

Naruto stared, pain covering his entire body, tears running down his face as all he could feel was pain, cold, and the feeling he was going to die there, never going back to Kumo, never seeing Yugito-Oneechan again, never being able to be with them, he would die there, and be eaten by other snakes.

He would betray all that he was, if he were to answer yes, he would go against all his principles, he wanted to become strong to protect others, not to eat others…it was wrong, he knew it, it was wrong…Kuro would never forgive him…and Kuro had been there for him in the worst days of his life, always there, even Yoru, would Kuro be there, had he followed Hakuja's law? No, he wouldn't. Now Kuro could soar through the skies, free, and he would not betray his friend like that!

"NEVER! I KNOW YOU ARE WRONG!" and with that final yell, the white sage snake crushed Naruto inside his spires.

From a tunnel, nearby, Manda hissed with a smirk, Orochimaru would have nothing to fear…the boy was dead, as the giant purple snake turned to leave, his father's voice called to him, making him turn around in arrogance.

"Manda, what brings you in my throne room?" the white snake hissed, stressing the words *my* and *throne*.

"Nothing father, just heard the screams…is he your prey?"

"He is nothing more than a bloody pulp on my scales now, I will hunt later, do not kill that which you do not eat, Manda."

"I will try, father," as Manda replied that, Hakuja's body was swiftly around the purple snake's one.

"What did you say, son?"

"I will do as you command, leader of us all," as Hakuja dropped his son, he turned to slither away, leaving Manda to curse in his mind, as he, the White snake sage, had better things to do.

As his body reached his personal cave, where only he could have access to, he flicked open a scale on his side through his tongue, to reveal the battered and bruised, but otherwise unharmed, boy, who stared at him perplexed, as he was thrown on the ground of the cave, surrounded with the bodies of dead and rotting animals.

"You have proven your resolve," Hakuja hissed, "The answer didn't matter, and neither did the question, what mattered was sticking through your resolve."

Naruto stared in surprise, as the snake seemed to slowly surround with his body the entirety of the cave, leaving him in the center of it.

"I will now teach you Senjutsu, but I will not be kind, if you'll fail, you will turn into an animal, and if that were to happen, then you will share the same fate as those that lie scattered at your feet," as Hakuja spoke, Naruto's mouth opened in disbelief, there were…hundreds of animals around here, all dead, and eaten. He wanted to go home too! He didn't want to stay here, to learn this *Senjutsu* thing…but could he actually leave?

No, Naruto realized it then, he couldn't.

"You understand finally," Hakuja spoke with a hiss, "I who am strong make the law…if you wish to leave…you will have to become stronger or more cunning than me…"

"I will leave this cave, mark my words. I will go back home!" as Naruto yelled that out, the white snake hissed, before letting his face move inches closer to that of the boy.

"I am Sannin-sama to you, blood stain," and with that, he threw the boy on the ground.

"Now we will start…"

**Author's notes.**

**Does Naruto have the sharingan? Does he not have it? Did the fox trick him once more? Did she not do it? How many questions does this new plot twist bring, and how many does it solve?**

**I did not make a Sasuke retrieval arc. I abhor that stuff, since I cannot comprehend why they had to send children while a Guy-sensei charging straight through would have done the job better…and with more youth.**

***After Minato-cursing arc, now it's the Danzo-cursing arc!***

**I feel a bit bad about having some readers have their hopes up that Danzo was a good guy…but, hey, he brainwashed a four years old!**

**And I left two hints: **

***Bird with scales***

**Yamato obeys the Hokage's orders…whoever he is. **

**General questions:**

**For Katsumi's escape: she left while they were still fighting in the village, so she was already back in Oto…nothing Danzo could do.**

**So…if you are asking…yeah. **

**Next chapter it's Shippuuden time. If you want to sway me towards a pairing, now is the time. Otherwise…**

***It's going to be one hell of a surprise***


	20. SH: Restarting

Twentieth chapter

"The Akatsuki's principal purpose is the capture of Bijuus," the voice of Jiraiya trembled, as he stared into the cold hardened gaze of the Raikage, "once it captures a Jinchuuriki, it usually takes them three days to extract the Bijuu from one's own body, afterwards, the Host dies," the clock on the Raikage's wall stopped ticking, electricity clogging its delicate systems, "if Shinkansen saw red clouds on black clothes, then it's the Akatsuki's doing, and Yugito may be in grave danger," the Toad Sage finished talking, as A, the once proud Raikage, stood up in silence, his right finger touching gently the button to call for his secretary.

"Samui," he spoke, "have B and Darui called," he added.

"Jiraiya-san…you've come to bring him flowers?" the Raikage queried, his gaze lingering for a brief moment on a sort of flowery bouquet, that stood clenched tightly by the sage's right hand.

"Well…I can't shake off the guilt," The sage whispered, "If only I had been a better godfather, maybe he'd still be alive, if I had him train some more, maybe he'd have stood a chance against *that*," the last word was spat out in anger, as for a brief instant, a glimpse of anger rose on the Raikage's face, before dwindling down, back to his slightly sorrowful face.

"Ten of October is coming around soon too," the Hermit kept speaking, "can't leave him alone on his birthday, can I?"

"You may be right…I'm just hoping Yugito didn't take the easy way out, she smiles only on that day…and barely," the Raikage spoke with a small frown on his face, before shaking his head, letting his right hand pass through his hair, "three years...we knew when Kuro told us, but we…we didn't want to believe. Until we found that place…all that blood, the seals…the transfer…"

The door opened slowly, as both Killer B and Darui moved in, they stopped for a brief second, glancing at the tension and the grief that seemed to be overflowing the office. They looked at each other for but a brief glance, and understood without talking, what the topic of the argument had been.

"You called bro?" B muttered, raising his right fist, as the Raikage replied with a slow bro fist, more out of habit, than because he actually wanted to reply.

"Yugito has been captured," the Raikage spoke, "she was with her squad doing a patrol around the beaches to the east of Kumogakure and she was captured, her team managed to scramble to safety, albeit badly hurt," he added, "Shinkansen ran all the way till here to inform us, before collapsing from the overuse of his Swift release," as he pointed that out, Darui queried.

"We've got something on the kidnappers?" He was visibly tense: kidnappings were since a long time on the top of the list of things he hated the most.

"They call themselves Akatsuki," Jiraiya spoke, "they kidnap Jinchuuriki to steal their Bijuu," at that, B's face turned sour, "it takes three day to perform the extraction, afterwards, the host dies," a small spark flew from B to Darui and backwards.

"We should get C for this too," Darui spoke quietly, but the look on both the Raikage's and B's face told him plenty. C had faulted himself since that day, he was one of the best sensor ninjas of Kumo, but once he lost track of the boy, and couldn't find him until too late, he simply couldn't take it anymore and began taking the highway of hell for ninjas: S-rank solo missions…and he had yet to fail.

"He's on another one…he completed over a hundred of them in three years…I think it would do him good, but I can't contact him until he comes back," the Raikage spoke, as, just then, B clapped his hands together.

"We've got no time to mope!

We now have to keep up hope!

Let's move out and find our Cat!

And then with Akatsuki we will chat!" A said nothing, but he did Bro-fist again B, who returned it.

"I'll shake my spy network until I find a lead…hopefully we might find a base, or something," with those words, Jiraiya took leave, slowly walking out, towards the front of Ichiraku's ramen, who had an empty seat, *reserved* on it.

"Jiraiya-san, please do come in," as Teuchi said that, seeing the toad sage in front of him, the hermit couldn't help but sit down in one of the free spots, but not on the reserved one, never on the reserved one.

"Hey Teuchi-san, how's life treating you?" the old ramen vendor laughed, as he took the sage's order.

"All is fine, in the beginning it was fun seeing how people thought that ramen tasted bitter. Hakkaku could have just asked about the *secret ingredient*, you know? It wasn't much of a secret," a small chuckle, as Ayame moved inside from the back, pushing a takeaway delivery…wagon.

"Father, I've got an order out for ramen for the Hill of Snakes, it shouldn't take much," as the girl said that, she then smiled and waved to the sage, before starting to use her arm's muscles for her daily workout.

"I should pass by and see Kuro too. They've got the boy a statue, kind of like that in Konoha you know," Teuchi mulled over the thought of going there too, but the harsh trek was a bit too much for his old man's bones, "and while I'm at…" Jiraiya didn't finish the sentence, as someone sat down on the *reserved* seat.

"That seat is taken sir," Teuchi spoke, "you should take another," the ninja in question, a man with a mist forehead protector, stared in front of him for a second, his broadsword on the back looming menacingly over the form of the ramen vendor.

Jiraiya tensed, thinking he'd need to put him in place, but the man said nothing, swapping seats in silence, and ordering his own food.

"The Sannin Jiraiya, isn't it?" The man queried, his half-lower face covered in bandages, as the hermit narrowed his eyes.

"Why would Zabuza of the Hidden Mist query that? And what *are* you doing here?" as Jiraiya asked that with curiosity, the swordsman of the mist spoke quietly.

"I met a man during my travel. He challenged me and my apprentice to a fight and we both lost. Next thing we know, he's bringing us back to the mist, where we were sought after…to be forgiven," Zabuza chuckled at that, "and now I'm here escorting the Kirigakure ambassador to a meeting with the Raikage, that man…he was something else."

"And why are you bringing this up to me?" Jiraiya queried.

"Well…for once, he fought with forbidden snake techniques…and for second, he was not Orochimaru," at those words, Jiraiya's eyes bulged. Who could it be?

"Thought you'd like the info, *I* am a reformed shinobi after all," as his own ramen arrived, sea ramen, Zabuza began eating in a slow and collected pace.

"Well, he had to be a strange man indeed," Jiraiya's eyes caught a purple haired Kunoichi walking leisurely along Kumo's road, eating Dangos, and he called out to her, "Mitarashi-san!" Paying for his ramen, he dashed off behind the Kunoichi, who seemed undecided while holding a kunai in one hand and a shuriken in the other.

Anko stopped for a moment, turning around in her usual beige trench coat and fishnet shirt, with her dark brown skirt, and then deciding to fling at the sannin both the kunai and the shuriken, which the old man caught without much problem.

"The toad pervert! What do you want? I ain't going to the bathes with you in town!" She replied, showing him her tongue, before looking at the flower bouquet in the sage's hand, at that, her gaze saddened.

"Please, it's important," Jiraiya actually pleaded, as he moved closer to the Kunoichi, who was still in the process of looking through her coat for more lethal armament, "do you know anyone, except Orochimaru," at those words, she tensed, her gaze narrowing down as she stared at Jiraiya, "that can use snake techniques? Not you, of course, someone else, a man…what was his description Zabuza!" as the Toad sage yelled that from the road to the swordman of the mist, the man rolled his eyes, paying his ramen and heading towards the sage.

"I don't know. He was covered in a black and white coat that hid all his features: I know he was a man by the way he talked! He did sprout snakes from his back and his forearms though, and even from the ground…he held us at sword point before I could switch with a water clone, and that was speed, Jiraiya, not flashy techniques, pure speed," as Zabuza spoke with acknowledgement, to the man he fought, the toad sage turned to Anko, who started thinking.

"It can't be him," she whispered, hitting her forehead with the palm of her hand, "it's not him, there's no way it's him…come on brain, come up with someone else," she slapped herself, just to make sure, before whispering, "It has to be the boy."

"But he's…" Jiraiya whispered, paling in the face.

"Dead? I know…Kami be damned, I know," she replied, snapping at the old man, "but he's the only one who'd I ever saw sprouting snakes from the back! Orochimaru never trusted anyone but himself with his back! So…I only saw the boy do that…during the fight against the Hyuga guy…I've got the recording of that match, you know? Special edition, I even get five minutes into the siege of Konoha," she spoke, her voice slowly hushing to a break, "well, I've got to go now…he's dead, so it has to be someone else, and my stupid brain can't think straight without alcohol," with those final words, Anko turned around, to get to her apartment in Kumo. She needed sake, a lot of sake.

She recalled when she had arrived: she had been cheery, thinking the little boy was in need of some Anko-goodness, and Dangos, a lot of Dangos. She didn't know there was a Dango stall in Kumo too, so she had come prepared for the *long winter* as she had jokingly called the exchange program. She had reached the Raikage's office, and she had instead been brought for a walk with the Nibi Jinchuuriki...the woman who seemed more dead than alive.

She had laughed, she recalled it distinctively, she had laughed when they had told her that the boy had been kidnapped again, she had reassured the blond woman, they were *his Oneechans* there was no way he'd enjoy two sisters brooding over him, he was fine and would go home. She had stupidly reassured her, and she had hoped to be right.

She had been so wrong.

The Princess of frost country, Koyuki, had found something after months of searching, a well hidden cave, who had no visible exit, and a dead corpse inside, shivered, destroyed, bloodied, whoever dropped it there had cruelly placed him under heavy chains and bindings, and had performed some sort of ritual. Anko had arrived saying how creepy it was, that bloodied thing, no more than fourteen or fifteen years old, she had said that trying to cheer up one of the boys of Yugito's team, who seemed nearly puking his guts out.

It hadn't dawned on her. Not until she saw a crib nearby, not until she heard Yugito whimper, as she sniffed out a small piece of cloth. Not until the Nibi Jinchuuriki had become crying over the body calling it with its name…Naruto.

She had drunk her sorrows, alone or with the Nibi, even the Raikage had once drunk till he had dropped, making the entire bar tremble as he had touched the ground. Now there was no longer a bundle of joy for her, and the corpse had been buried. That's where she was going when the toad sage had stopped her: that was her daily routine. First she went to the tomb, then she went to work, then she went to eat Dangos near the tomb, then she went back to work, and then she ate dinner near the tomb. She talked to him, kind of hoping he'd pop up saying she should just let him rest in peace.

Now, however, she needed more sake before going to his tomb, what if he was still alive? But the test…the blood test, the Dna test…the blood was his, as was the body…just how could he have done that, and survive?

*Someone*

It was cold.

He had been at ease in the cold for a long, long time. Now, it bugged him.

He hated the cold.

His hand slowly slid inside the gloves, one black, and one white.

They'd see him coming, and they'd find out there was no way they'd be left unpunished.

The earth has called to him when he had queried it. The wind had carried the scents to him, and there was no way he'd let them go.

He had thought about it, he had been travelling around, a bit, before deciding on it. Then, he had felt it.

That's why, seeing the strange Fuinjutsu seal in front of him, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes.

At first glance, it was normal: Nine points, easy as pie for any intermediate level Jounin and for most skilled Chuunins to see. That was the trick, as in nearly invisible ink, eight more points were hidden from the view, bringing it to seventeen points, so much secrecy, so much desire to hide something from him. The rock in front of him was dead, a barrier, obviously, he could feel the chakra move through the rock, strengthening it, he could feel the two men behind, going along their work, their work on something he was not going to let go unpunished.

He hissed, as talking was something he used rarely, recently.

A white snake slowly slid out of the collar of his black and white scaled trench coat, moving silently onto his right hand, turning around just to hiss back to him, it was silence, in the small clearing.

Then, the man nimbly worked his hand on the seal, retracing it carefully, substituting the variants, re-calculating its prerogatives, and, in the end, whispering the code hidden within the rock itself. It was easy, when you could see the chakra roll around inside the stone, you could see it react to right and wrong, you could feel it shimmer all around you. The rock opened, and he was met with two persons.

One had a scythe, with red blades and wore a robe composed of red clouds with white borderlines, it was funny how he noticed the weapon first, and the appearance later, silver hair at medium length, purple eyes, while the other didn't seem to have weapons, and that marked him as more dangerous in *his* eyes. He was taller, a white hood and a black mask hiding most of its features, except for his eyes, a sort of giant green pupil and red sclera. On his head, he wore the Takigakure forehead protector, but it had been cut in the middle.

Laying on the ground stood the Nibi Jinchuuriki, she had been badly beaten, but was still alive.

He had stopped them from going along with the extraction, and as the flow of chakra returned in the Jinchuuriki's body, she resumed breathing regularly.

The two turned to stare at the intruder. They had sensed him, but had thought it would take more time to break through, time enough to finish, at least!

"Jashin-sama wants your head! FUCK JASHIN! Why the hell did you interrupt us, huh! You…you walking chessboard!" as the green haired one spoke in loud yells, grabbing his scythe, the individual in question felt a tinge of annoyance, as it turned towards the other one.

"I destroyed your village," he spoke, slowly removing his hood, "but I brought with me something good," the man stood in his twenty-five, twenty-six maybe, his face wore no whisker marks, but had dark blue eyes, bordering the purple, as his hair had the color of stained in red blond hair.

Small black and white scales, on his cheeks stood, as both of his forearms exploded in two snakes, as tall as him, one black and the other white, who silently dropped to the side of the man.

"I hold no affiliation with Taki, but Hidan brings a point, for once. You do not appear on the bingo book: why bother getting killed?" the other man spoke, as he removed his robe, Kakuzu was not a fool, he recognized the quiet power rumbling. What did the man take from Takigakure that he did not? The elder's heart had been taken by him, as the forbidden techniques…what could remain?

"Jashin wants his head!" the other man spoke, dashing straight in, three-bladed scythe in hand, before stopping midway and letting it swing, thanks to the chain attached to the handle.

The blade struck deeply into the body, only for it to disappear into a puff of smoke, the two snakes jumping backwards, hissing slowly.

"Foul-mouthed," the man spoke, in a flicker being behind the scythe man, "and crude in your Kenjutsu ways," he teased, before getting down on his knees, to avoid the scythe's backwards movement, as Kakuzu, from his side, simply dashed forward, his right fist impacting against that of the man in front of him, who swiftly had snakes crawl out of it, to push at the Akatsuki member, who jumped back to avoid them, and then swiftly sidestepped to the side to avoid the Ninjatos emerging from the snakes mouth.

Hidan took the cue to let his scythe fall on the body, he had to be the real…*puff*.

"I think I'm going to keep harassing you for a while," the man spoke, from the cavern's side, as another one similarly dressed appeared right on top of one of the wooden statue's fingers, "or maybe," a third clone spoke, "I'll bring this to an end."

"Hidan! Grab the woman, I'll cover you!" Kakuzu's stitches, that usually kept his limbs attached, came undone.

"Jashin-sama wants *me* to kill him! One of them has to be real!" Hidan yelled as he charged blindly the closest one, who jumped in mid-air to avoid the first swing, and as the second came from down below in an upward motion, a snake sprouted from his back, biting onto the small space between the scythe's blades and pushing the man out of the blade's way, as kunais flew from snakes sprouting from the black and white shinobi, they landed into Hidan, who chuckled.

"They're not going to harm me shit! I am immortal! For Jashin-sama I'll kill him!"

"Raiton: Gian!" Kakuzu's arms sprouted electrical bolts that dashed forward towards their intended targets, the two clones on the side that had been moving to assist the fallen Jinchuuriki. That's when the black and white snake that the man had dropped decided to act. The first spew forward a strong air wave, countering the electricity of the Raiton, by insulating it from physically harming the man, while the other returned it back with a fire breath, sending it straight back at Kakuzu.

"Doton: Domu!" as the Akatsuki's skin turned black, the fire passed over him, charring his clothes, but not his body, and revealing four hideous masks on his back, and his body covered in stitches.

"I think you stitched another one right there," the white snake teased the Akatsuki member, "I mean: that small? Are you kidding me?"

"Hush Yami-chan, the bad boy is unable to stand to attention, poor thing, must have hurt to stitch through it," as the black snake spoke, the two belittling Kakuzu, Hidan was faring against the clone, while the two unscathed one began drawing upon seals, before grabbing the Nibi Jinchuuriki and yelling.

"Gyaku Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

"DAMN!" as the two snakes dispersed in smoke, together with the clones of the man and of the Nibi Jinchuuriki, Kakuzu and Hidan yelled foul curses, as they had to start their quest…again.

"This is entirely your fault! You pathetic excuse of a believer!" Kakuzu pointed his finger at Hidan, who growled back.

"Jashin-sama wants them dead! Fuck Jashin! Give me something to work on Jashin-sama!" as Hidan cursed towards the sky, nothing, obviously, happened.

"We've got to get the Nibi, before the boss gets you punished!" Kakuzu replied.

"ME! It was YOUR fault you damn fucker! For Jashin!" as Hidan tried to swing his scythe towards Kakuzu's head, the man blocked it with ease.

"It's your fault for being an incompetent! It was clear the real one was the one at the cave's entrance! You had to fight the clone on your scythe, HUH!" as Kakuzu flung his threads into Hidan's arm, he started to stitch together the man's mouth.

"Now be quiet you damn fool and let's get going!" Hidan kept mumbling curses and *Jashin-sama* as his mouth was stitched, before following his partner. Kakuzu was scary…but he was also the only one of the team who was able to stitch him when his limbs got separated.

*Somewhere*

Yugito slowly opened her eyes. She recalled fighting with all her might against two guys on the beach, having to keep them occupied long enough for her squad to run away, Shinkansen was sent to run to the village, she hoped they were fine…Hayari could hide quite well now, practically even in plain sight…and Mogura, he was actually a walking hulk of strength and metallic claws. She was proud of them, but she wouldn't voice that loud too much. Nor get too close, not anymore. She'd lose them too, to war, to kidnappers, to something. She saw the ceiling, it looked like a cave. She felt the need to puke her innards, thoughts and memories drifting in, a body under heavy wrappings, blood and worse of all…who the body belonged to. She had failed him again, she should have kept searching, and she could have reached him, if she only had kept searching: she would have certainly found him. Instead he had died, alone, in that cave, smashed under an incredible weight as pain took the better of him as the Kyuubi was extracted from him. When those guys had come for the same intentions…she had thought it would be revenge finally. She had done her best, fighting them off…but they didn't die! She had finally given in: if she couldn't get revenge in this world…then maybe she'd see her Otouto in the other world.

So why was there a feeling of pain? Pain was a thing for the living, not for the dead. Was this hell? Did she sin so much, in crying for her brother? Did she curse Kami too much? She started to slowly sob, and that, that attracted the attentions of the man next to her, who had probably saved her. Why? How? But most importantly…who?

She could barely feel her entire body, pain shooting forward from every limb and her spine refused to stand up. She had to stand up, as all she saw was the man's back, a tall man, with broad shoulders, whose hair seemed blond, but as only the light of a small campfire nearby illuminated it, it seemed to reverberate with shades of red.

The rear of his mantle read the Kanji for *Sage*, as in truth, it wasn't precisely a black and white mantle, but more the intertwined motif of snakes, black and white, that gave off said illusion.

The man hissed, for a moment, before he kept on cooking on the campfire, seemed he had something ready for dinner, or lunch, being in a cave she had no idea of the time outside. How much had she been knocked out?

"I asked you a question," the man spoke, slowly.

"Huh?" Yugito muttered, before the man slowly grumbled something in a set of hisses.

"I asked it in snake-tongue, right? Too much time without…human contact," the man turned around, showing his purple eyes, at least in the dark they seemed purple, his face seemed hard, and old, for one who didn't have more than twenty-five years, maybe. He wore the same pattern of black and white snakes as a jacket, in front, and a brown and green shirt underneath it all, that would usually be out of sight due to the white jacket. His trousers seemed black, with a strange scale motif.

"I'm not thanking you with that, you pervert!" Yugito screeched, before coughing violently because of the pain.

The man stared at her perplexed, before turning to his stew. It seemed to be a skinned rabbit, twirling around in broth.

"You misunderstood," the man spoke quietly, "I was without human contact…at all, Hisses were my lullabies and my wakes," he added, his right hand seemed filled with scars, bite wounds especially, and his gloves stood on his knee, as he was in a comfortable sitting position on a small lump of rock.

"I see…I'm sorry, if you bring me back to the Raikage of Kumo…I'm sure he'd reward you," she said, curiosity kicking in even in her state, just *who* was the man?

"My medical jutsus were a bit rusty," He replied, kind of ignoring her words, which made her frown, "but you should be able to walk by tomorrow, Jinchuurikis," She winced, so he knew what she was, it didn't bode well, "have great regeneration powers," he added.

"You seem to know me, but I don't know you," as she pointed that out, the man chuckled.

"I'm no-one in particular, but I'll bring you back to the village unharmed and unscathed, I can promise you that, if you won't query my name any further," as he spoke soothingly, Yugito sighed.

"Fine, is there any dinner for me?" she asked, she felt hunger making a hole in her stomach, how many days had it passed since being captured?

"Yes, broth," he replied, slowly getting from the rabbit soup the broth, "your stomach is severely injured, you *will*," stressing the word, "puke anything that isn't liquid," Yugito growled slightly, but stood silent, as the man slowly lifted her head with practiced ease, slowly letting her drink the warm soup, before letting her head rest once more on the cushion…cushion?

"What is my head resting on?" she queried.

"That would be a part of me," a male hissing voice spoke, "I am Hikari," a black scaled snake's head popped into her vision for a moment, staring down at her with golden eyes.

Yugito opened her mouth in disbelief. Was it…

"Kuro? You know Kuro?" the snake tilted its head to the side, before turning his gaze to the *sage* who said nothing, but handed the stewed rabbit to *Hikari* who gleefully ate it whole, as the remaining broth was gulped down by the man.

"I'm waiting if you know Kuro…" Yugito muttered.

"Not answering that question," the man replied, as he could hear the faint groan of the Nibi Jinchuuriki behind him, "and I will not answer many others."

"I *should* thank you, for saving my life…but you're making it difficult, you know?" the blond woman sighed, "Can you at least tell me what day it is?" she hoped that she wasn't late for her Otouto's birthday…at least not that.

"It's the first of October," the man replied, "nine days till the day a beast was born," he added.

Yugito narrowed her eyes, if her head wasn't resting against a giant snake, and if she wasn't that hopelessly trashed in both body and chakra, she'd make the man pay.

"I'm a beast too?" she queried, "You're referring to the day the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki came to life, right?" she added, maybe she had gotten it wrong, it could be the birthday of his mother-in-law…albeit she doubted anyone would have anything to do with a rude man like him.

"No, only him, he was a monster, after all," the man replied, as Yugito's gaze turned murderous on the man.

"You…you can go, I'll manage to get back to Kumo alone, once I've rested," as she muttered that under her breath, the man chuckled.

"What's so funny, *Sage*?" she spat out: the man was getting on all her nerves, as she saw him shake his head.

"I'm bringing you back to Kumo, because I want to challenge the waterfall of truth," he muttered, "you are my free ticket for a good try on it," he added.

Yugito raised an eyebrow.

"I see, you think the Raikage will accept it if I say no?" she smirked, the man was poor on social contacts, she'd teach him to offend her Otouto.

"Well, I *did* save you, what was it, wanting to meet that monster once more?" Yugito dashed upwards, grabbing the man by the shirt, or at least trying to, as the sharp pain she felt all over her body made her cry and convulse, as she fell back down, cramping from the pain she felt all over.

"You were lucky," the man spoke quietly, "had you touched me, you'd have died," as he put his gloves back on, he grinned, "sleep well, Nii-san."

Yugito slowly drifted into unconsciousness, as the man slowly let his right hand glow a bright green, before beginning to mend the internal wounds the woman *had* caused to herself by the sudden jolting up.

"Are you sure this is how you wish to go about?" Hikari queried, staring with his golden eyes at the man.

"Less questions, more time for doing my work…if I don't, they'll tie me down, probably…and I can't, not yet," the voice was a tinge sorrowful, as he whispered, to the fainted and sleeping form of the woman, "she didn't even recognize me…I've changed too much."

"Your kindness remains the same," the white snake, Yami, spoke, as she slowly slid in, her eyes hetero chromic, one blue and the other green, "while she sleeps, and you do so too, I will stand guard," the man made a brief smile, before sighing.

"Fine Yami-Oneechan," and with that, he slowly let his head fall, with gentleness, on another section of Hikari's body.

*Konoha*

Danzo frowned: the report was disturbing, but not too much. It just meant this *Akatsuki* was truly a problem. If Kumo lost all of its Jinchuuriki, it would still be strong, but against the enemies one? No, there was a need for stronger alliances, Sunagakure still held their Jinchuuriki, albeit voices told him that he had calmed down, immediately after the siege of Konoha, and had gone to great lengths to keep good terms with Konoha, lest the fear of *chains* to come for him once more.

It was a strange thing, that the boy had become the Kazekage, a strong shinobi, but would quiver in hiding at the first sign of a red-haired woman with chains.

Once discovered, it had become a common occurrence in Suna, until the siblings of the Kazekage had made said…*practice* stop, through force of arms.

A pity for the blacksmiths and the dyer, but it did make the Ichibi more at peace with himself.

Now, there was a need to turn for the other great countries, like Mist, or even Iwa…Iwa had been more open in her regards after hearing the fate of the fourth Hokage, going as far as anonymously send Danzo a bottle of fine wine and a congratulation ticket.

The wine was obviously poisoned, but at least it was the thought that counted.

He winced, as he read what appointment he had for the month, and, except a lot that could actually be considered acting like a charity, something important was taking place today, a meeting in his office had been scheduled by the Land of Iron.

He was sure it wouldn't take much to solve the problem.

He knew that they couldn't be faulted for letting go of the Jinchuuriki before due time, it was obvious, his *death* too had been referred, so why now?

The door opened, when he ordered his secretary to let the messenger in.

"Godaime-sama," the Iron land messenger wore samurai armor, with a white flag pole-planted on the back of his shoulder, a sign he was a neutral messenger, "I came concerning the transfer of the Jinchuuriki from Kumo to Konoha and its return," Danzo winced, he did send a letter to the land of iron informing of his early release, didn't he?

"I'm sure there's a misunderstanding…he's been given back three years ago, we do not have him any longer," Danzo replied, as the Iron land's messenger shook his head.

"The Kyuubi has not reappeared anywhere in the world, Godaime-sama: that means there is still a Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. Thus, you have to return the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi to Kumo. That much is stated in the contract, a lost weapon must be found and returned," Danzo's knuckles trembled, as he spoke.

"Surely you jest, understand that we have no way to…"

"You may speak with Kumo and arrange a way, maybe a joint research of the Jinchuuriki in question? As long as it is found and given to Kumo, or as long as you will search it conjointly with Kumo, we will make no remarks," the messenger retorted, "unluckily the contract is binding…to the position," he added as Danzo simply nodded…even as a missing S-rank nin Minato Namikaze managed to get on his nerves!

"Is there anything else?" Danzo queried.

"Well, there is, Mifune-sama has deemed worthy of sending an Iron Land examiner to work together with the group seeking the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, he should be reaching Kumogakure as we speak. His name is Toruna, he's an expert tracker, we suggest a four man cell, with Toruna as the fifth man, but he will not intervene against shinobis from other countries, only missing Nins and bandits." Danzo nodded, well, if even the land of iron wanted to waste a man, then he'd give the team two people he saw fit.

"I'll appoint a meeting with the Raikage, to discuss the situation, the land of iron will be informed as soon as possible," as the messenger excused himself, Danzo turned to the window.

The village of Konoha was growing strong, and mighty. Shinobis were trained, and orphans became Root, the might of the leaf was growing, growing towards the skies and even more. Yet he knew it was going to need more power. More strength and that would come from the young three years old girl that was being trained. She could easily overthrow her same age opponents, but she needed to age, she needed to age and to obey…and for that, he had just found the perfect way…a sauna of Hero Water that would do wonders, if only the village hadn't been destroyed, together with the source being clogged by an entire mountain, plus a river. But Danzo knew that, deep down, the Hero water was still being formed. He just needed some time to extract it…three years, to be precise.

The water lay in a small crystal clear glass, hidden within a storage jutsu. First the girl had to lose all emotions, kill her best friend, her *mother* and then she'd be a silent tool for his will.

Silent and deadly, like the beast she harbored inside of her.

To think her real mother was walking along the very same streets of Konoha together with that stupid husband of hers, both still in mourning for their loss.

"Sakura Haruno has reached Chuunin rank? Well…I could send her, extraordinary display of medic jutsus, overwhelming strength, arrogant personality barely kept in check. Holds feelings for the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki," as Danzo mused over a personal info that only the Hokage could see, or, better yet, that only he could have produced by his secret operatives, he mused over another one, "Yakumo Kurama, chuunin rank, specialty in Genjutsu, realistic ones, holds feeling for the Kyuubi's previous Jinchuuriki too?"

Danzo chuckled…

"What a little heart-stealer you were…Naru-chan."

Somewhere, in the training fields of Konoha, a certain pink-haired girl stood gazing at the three wooden logs and at the grass and the trees all around her. She recalled the sweet memory, of when she had at first been a lousy yelling girl, her first time with Katsumi, and Sasuke, seeing the boy in front of them.

_Naruto didn't seem strong…I should have known not to judge by appearances…_the recollection of the stupid thing she wanted to do to Katsumi, the kunai in her hand, the boy yelling at her, Katsumi forgiving her never the less, and finally, them passing with flying colors. The boy was dead. She had been told how by Kakashi himself, the copy-cat ninja who, after the loss of two of his students, had taken on to train her, together with…*Tsunade-Taichou*, how the legendary sannin wished to be called. She had done her best, not to delude any of her two teachers, and now, now she was staring at the wooden log, where she, in particular, had been tied. She hadn't been strongly tied, no, it was barely a knot, the boy didn't want to harm her, or her two teammates, but now…now she shivered, thinking about that boy, with his kind attitude and his gentle smile, his soothing words, she thought about how he died, a bloodied mess under weights and chains and shackles, killed by his very own parents, a brutal mess, a brutal affair, and yet he kept soothing her and talking kindly to her, he who had scars far worse than hers. She punched the wooden log off, tearing through it with her chakra-enhanced fists, and hitting it until it was just saw dust. She should forget the past, she had to walk forward, always forward, to become the strongest there was.

That's where Kakashi found her, and where the silver-haired Jounin waited for her to finish sorting out her emotions. The Genins would get another mission of placing a new log in the ground that much was sure.

"Something's happening?" Kakashi queried, trying to lighten the mood with his *smiling eye* Genjutsu, as Sakura turned her green jaded gaze to the sensei.

"No…it's just, the ten of October is coming, and it was Katsumi-chan's birthday…" Sakura whispered, "and then I thought about Naruto too, since they were twins…to think his family would do that to him, his family," she barely said that out, shaking her head, "I shouldn't dwell on the past, Kakashi-sensei, but…it's just so hard, at night, to forget about it."

"I know the feeling," Kakashi replied, scratching the back of his head. He was even more hurt, because not only did that happen to a boy he had personally taught, who he had seen grow tough in a situation similar to his, to fend off for himself, but because that polite boy was no more, his mini-clone was no longer there, to brighten the mood, to read Icha-Icha with him, and he probably never used the silver-dye, not even as a joke. It was saddening, but he was a Jounin, and he was used to losing people. It just kept hurting for a long while, until eventually the pain would soften.

"How is Rin-san doing?" Sakura queried to the copy-cat ninja, she knew they had a fling going on, but she kept it on the polite term.

"Fine, she has subtly suggested I stop reading Icha-Icha books…" Kakashi shivered, "and take on the *Horror Collection* of a certain Toruna-san," he shook his head, recalling just how vivid those stories were.

"That famous author of the Land of Iron?" Sakura queried, "My mother simply can't seem to stop reading them, even though she looks under her bed for hours, afterwards," she shrugged, horror stories weren't her bread.

"Anyway, the Hokage has called us to his office, there's something important he needs to tell us," Kakashi mused, "and we're already twenty minutes late," he added with a soft chuckle.

Sakura's forehead had a vein bulging on, as she narrowed her gaze to Kakashi, before swiftly throwing a right jab straight at his Icha-Icha book, reducing it to dust with a single precise hit.

"MY BOOK!" Kakashi whined, as he had actually let her do that, to steam off, but still, "It was an autographed edition! What am I going to do now?"

"We can't have the Hokage wait, Kakashi-sensei! Let's go!" with that, Sakura dashed off, followed by the copy-cat Nin.

Yakumo had been fidgety, at best, as she had been called into the Hokage's office, she thought something was coming along and it would be bad, for her, maybe she was called for her *nights* with Naruto's copy? She shouldn't have done that, creating Genjutsu illusion of him, making him real just to be with him, but she needed his smile. She needed him to gently pat her long hazel hair, knitted into a braid, she needed him to say that her eyes were pretty, and that she had grown up fine, that her ninja attire, consisting of a Tanto on her hip and of short purple skirt, with a long sleeved green jacket and light blue shirt was adorable, she needed that. If the Hokage turned out not to like it, and ordered her not to, she'd probably have to beg him to reconsider. It was her way of coping, it wasn't all that bad! Who could have spied on her though? *Naruto* only came to her when she was alone, in the house, or at late night, when everyone else was sleeping.

He was her best friend, even when dead, and that, that she didn't want to lose it, even to the shinigami!

So she stood in wait, for twenty five minutes she stood waiting, inside the Hokage's office, with Danzo silently scribbling on the desk, looking at the clock, and then scribbling again.

Finally the door swung open.

"We're sorry we are late, Hokage-sama! Kakashi-sensei had a hard time finding me!" Sakura exclaimed, as Danzo barely made a nod of recognition, to both the Ninjas, before gesturing for them to close the door, and activating the privacy seals.

"It has come, to the attention of the Iron Land, that we no longer have the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki," he spoke slowly, as looks of stupor, and of not understanding, took place on both girls, while Kakashi simply narrowed his only eye, "nor does Kumo, we haven't taken much care of reading the contract with the Land of Iron…but we were at fault, in giving Naruto back to Kumo before the term had finished, without properly escorting him. Since he never reached home…he never officially passed back to Kumo."

"But he died midway, his body…" Kakashi spoke softly, he had participated in the search for the boy's body with his own dogs, and he had seen the body.

"Yes, but the Kyuubi never reappeared once in these three years," Danzo replied, "which means that someone, somewhere, holds it hostage, or holds the Jinchuuriki of the beast," Sakura's expression hardened, she had just the idea of *who* it was.

"So…there's a chance he could be…" Yakumo spoke softly, a small glint of hope in her eyes that was cut short by Kakashi himself.

"No," the Jounin muttered, "He is dead. I saw the corpse, I checked it: it was him. He is dead. *That* monster killed him, and he probably took the Kyuubi with him…and probably put it inside Yugao-san's child," as he shook his head, to strongly prove his point, Danzo nodded with a small grimace.

"Anyway, the Land of Iron has sent a tracker to Kumogakure, to help them tracking the Jinchuuriki down, we are to assist in the operation, if we wish not to infringe on the contract made, and for that…you two have been chosen to assist," as Danzo pointed at the two girls, their eyes opened wide.

"You on the other hand, Hatake-san, will escort the two Kunoichi Sakura Haruno and Yakumo Kurama to Kumogakure, making sure they arrive alive and well, to help assist," as Danzo finished speaking, Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"Why them and not a tracking team? Like Kurenai's one?" The question was sound, and, past the initial stupor, a cold sensation wormed its way inside of the girl's soul, and stomach, as Danzo muttered back, a couple of seconds later.

"Who says I am not sending them too, Hatake-san? While they will work specifically…these two Kunoichis will work to keep up the alliance with Kumogakure…by any means possible," at those words, Kakashi's eye narrowed.

The man was basically subtly hinting that the two girls would have to seduce their way through the tracker, and the probably assigned Kumo ninjas, and…

"We're to be dead weight and disposable, right?" Sakura muttered, "We are the *token* ninjas assigned to the tracker, so the alliance holds and the Iron Land doesn't take actions."

Yakumo's gaze went sideways, for all the training she did, it seemed she would never be nothing more than dead weight, in some people's eyes.

"If you wish to think of it that way, then yes," Danzo whispered back, "or you could try and prove me wrong…finding him first then the tracker team," the Yami of shinobis added, standing up from his desk, using his cane to keep him steady on his feet.

"What if it has ended into an enemy village?" Yakumo, turning her gaze upwards, queried nervously.

"The tracker of the land of Iron has a special permit, as long as you follow his every move, you should incur into no harm," Danzo replied, "this will be a B-level prolonged mission, for you two, and a C-level escort mission for you, Hatake-san, do not betray my expectations…by all means, complete the mission," with those final words, he gently tapped on the floor with his wooden cane, as the three ninjas in front of him saluted, before leaving to prepare.

_How ironic, that what they all seek is hidden straight under their noses._

*Otogakure*

"So…explain, why do *we* have to go with *him* to get the Iron land's tracker?" Sumire queried, narrowing her eyes to Kabuto. The girl with blue flowing hair had grown, in certain areas, sporting a slightly noticing chest increase, and she had grown a couple of inches more, she sported on the back of what seemed like a jersey for gymnastics, of purple color, a Ninjato, the jersey was sleeveless, to reveal underneath a long sleeved orange pullover, which had, underneath, a green and brown shirt.

Horror in fashion sense, but nobody commented on it.

"Because, Sumire-chan, Orochimaru-sama needs the tracker for his purposes and to track down your Oniisan, don't you want that? Being a neutral entity he will not attack you…you just have to *push* him to follow you, and you are the best talker," Kabuto pointed out, "You'll be with Karin-chan and Tayuya-chan…I don't see how *he* could make a move on you…if that was your…" but he got cut short by Sumire wielding a kunai in her right hand, aiming it at the medic-nin.

"If he does, I'm castrating him," she pointed out, to which Kabuto nodded, "until I get Oniisan back safe and…sound," she giggled at the horrible and disgusting word play, at least in Kabuto's mind, "I've got no time for love, and…he was the reason I couldn't get closer to Oniisan how much I wanted to! Sharingan or not…I don't see why Orochimaru-sama believes we need him."

Kabuto shook his head, before querying.

"Are you quest…"

"Never!" Sumire replied, shaking her head, "I'll cooperate with *him*…but I can't guarantee he'll come back all in one piece, if he goes touchy-touchy. Got it?"

"Fine by me," Kabuto thought that probably Orochimaru wouldn't have minded a body without *that* part…what did he ever use it for to begin with?

Orochimaru sneezed: someone was making pedophile jokes on him!

Shaking her head, Karin, who had been next to Sumire for all this time, mulled a thought.

"But what if they simply gave the Kyuubi to someone else? Wouldn't that mean Naruto's…" Karin got on her knees, why didn't she learn not to speak next to Sumire!

The Ninjato flew in the air, followed by a volley of Kunais, Senbon needles and even Sais, just to drive the point home.

"If…If you speak about that impossible thing again…I will kill you, Karin-chan," Sumire muttered, her face narrowed into a gaze of anger.

"Sorry, he's still alive and kicking, obviously, so strong he can hide from anyone, but not your love, right?" Karin meekly said swiftly, as Sumire, actually, blushed.

"Well, *he* is waiting outside the village, ready to depart when you are ready," Kabuto muttered, "try and calm your nerves, Sumire-chan, your Onii-san wouldn't want you to have wrinkles from stress, would he?"

The blue haired Oto-nin blushed slightly again, before excusing herself together with Karin, to go fetch Tayuya and their supplies.

"You think Tayuya-chan is going to rape him?" Karin queried in a teasing tone to Sumire, who shrugged.

"She can do what she wants, you heard Kabuto-san, *that* boy just needs to come back in one piece," a thought crossed the blue-haired girl's mind, about Tayuya actually having an intercourse with the Uchiha…it made her shiver, "but I doubt she'd go that low."

"She still might though, well, let's go get this over with," Karin muttered, "Orochimaru-sama wants this over quickly, so I can head over to the East Refuge to help in some experiments," she added, carefully.

"Then let's get this over quickly," Sumire snarled back, as she knocked heavily onto the only girl of the sound four room.

"What the hell do you want? I'm busy, come back later!" the reply came with a yell, as both Karin, and Sumire, could hear pitiful cries of help, but at a lower and muffled tone, coming from within.

"We have to go convince a Land of Iron expert tracker to come with us, Tayuya-chan, you know how ripped they are, those samurais?" Karin teased, and, soon enough, they heard a small yell, some bone snapping, and then Tayuya was already outside, dressed and ready to go.

"Why didn't you say that sooner you darn cherry?" the woman muttered, "I'm tired of the small fries…why can't I find a man that lasts?"

"Maybe because you're a bit too…excessive?" Karin replied, "I mean, really, you bring the term *boy-toy* to an all new level," she teased the pink-haired swearing woman, as Sumire rolled her eyes before quickening their pace, she had few things to take, and in a couple of minutes, they were all ready to leave.

"Shut it, you cloistered nun," Tayuya cursed, as they started trekking out of the village, just to see a man wearing a white shirt, with raven spiked hair, the sharingan clearly visible in his eyes, and wearing purple trousers, a Katana hanging on his back.

He rolled his eyes over, seeing the three girls. Orochimaru had some sort of wicked sense of humor: they were going to slow him down. He had trained harshly, for three years, to become strong enough to kill his brother, and now he was sent on a quest to track a tracker and *convince* him with his eyes to follow them back to the snake Sannin's lair.

The Iron Land tracker was said to be a good one, he'd probably be able to track down even Itachi…and then, he'd have his revenge. The true purpose was to convince the man to follow them, but Genjutsu was going to be the key to do that, if he were to refuse. That was why the team had been selected to have someone hold out if the man attacked, that been Sasuke, and someone to Genjutsu him, that been Sasuke, thus, in the raven haired mind, the other three girls were just dead-weight, and should have stayed home…knitting, maybe.

"It's the last of the Uchiha! Quick! Jump away from his brooding gaze!" Sumire chuckled, as a vein bulged on Sasuke's forehead. Once he had discovered *who* she really was, he had been shocked, just a couple of months with Orochimaru had made her strong, and now, with three years of training, they both *were* stronger, he obviously was stronger than her, but they'd never had a fight, yet, so it was hard to prove.

"Sumire-chan, remember he's the team's captain for this," Karin muttered back, before glancing in acknowledgement of the boy's chakra. It was dark, alright, and a bit cold, it wasn't anything like that of Sumire's brother, who was strong, crude, but also warm, and burning brightly.

"For fuck's sakes, let's get moving, I want the samurai's abs grinding against me!" Tayuya yelled, slightly drooling on the side of the mouth, before Sasuke's gaze on her made her stop.

"Let's go. But remember: I am the one in charge," with those sharp words, Sasuke turned around, beginning to walk his way towards Kumogakure. He was stronger now, and a step closer to Itachi, he'd kill the man, of that Sasuke was sure!

*Place Unknown*

"Children, I'm home!" Kushina Namikaze smiled, as she entered the wooden cottage in Amegakure, where many boys and girls stood smiling and waving at her, as she was the head of the orphanage in question. The city was a refugee one, and together with her husband, they had brought up from nothing this orphanage. The money came from Minato's *Missing-nin* hunting, and his work with his colleagues, while she…she couldn't do it anymore. She had wanted to stop being a ninja after giving birth, but when Minato had told her what had happened, she couldn't believe it.

They had twins, and one had been given the nine tails, by Danzo's orders and through tricking the Third in believing it was the only way. Only Minato's actions as Hokage had prevented the boy from becoming a mindless weapon, but Danzo had wormed his way through the council, and years later, they had taken him away from her, without anything Minato could do. She still had Katsumi at the time, but after a couple of years, they had found Naruto once more, but he had changed into a mindless weapon, Danzo's work, and he was no longer their son. He did feign it, to be brought back in the family, but he did that to get closer to Minato, to have him lose his position as Hokage by forging documents that accused him of murders and horrible things, and even though she had loved him, he had betrayed even her, making her go mad with the use of poisons, until in the end she had snapped repeatedly, nearly killing her own assigned Genins, and murdering Anbus. Minato had done his best to protect her and Katsumi, but during a mission in Takigakure, the boy had all out caused the destruction of the village, and had his associates from Danzo kidnap their daughter, and give it to Orochimaru, the snake monster. Katsumi was still alive, but she no longer recognized them, and they hadn't found her albeit having travelled in disguise through all the land of sound, repeatedly. They had moved to Amegakure then, and had started a new life. Minato had done his best to make her feel comfortable, as he truly loved her, and she loved him back. She couldn't help but cry, sometimes, thinking about how her son had caused all that pain in her family, and how Minato couldn't forgive him.

She just wanted to tear Danzo apart that much was sure, but on her son, she had conflicting emotions. He had been the cause of their ruins…but he was her son, and had acted under compulsion by Danzo. He was just another victim…albeit Minato had said that the boy had willingly followed Danzo for power, as he had been jealous of how they treated Katsumi better than him. She didn't recall much, the amnesia she suffered from was giving her blind headaches whenever she wished to recollect something. She did remember Katsumi's face, however. Twin red ponytails, a bright smile, blue eyes. She couldn't recall Naruto, at all. To fill in the gap, she had taken on an orphanage, and had taken in many of the children that came without families, the result of wars and skirmishes in villages, or bandit raids. Amegakure *was* a village of refugees, and many lived in near poverty or in absolute degrading conditions. She had vowed to change that, and she believed in it.

"Today we get stew, 'ttebayo!" she said with a smile, as the children cheered while she went to the kitchen, her assistant, Konan, was already at work. She had a thing for making paper origami, and she was a great help.

"Thank you Konan-chan, I don't know what I'd do without you around," Kushina replied smiling, as she started to skin the caught rabbits. If there wasn't enough money, by the end of the month, hunting proved to be a valid substitute.

"It's never a problem, Kushina-chan," the other woman replied with a smile, "I enjoy helping out other who are as unlucky as I was once," she added, with a small awry smile.

"You think Minato and Nagato-kun are going to come home soon?" The red-haired woman smiled, thinking about the lost cousin she had found here, in Amegakure.

"I suppose, they said it would take a while to catch that particular Missing Nin…something about him being able to use strange meteor-like chakra?"

"I doubt there's anything those two can't do together, makes me feel jealous sometime," Kushina replied with a small pout, having finished skinning the rabbit.

Konan laughed gently, taking the skinned game and chopping it swiftly, removing bones with her own personal paper-knife, on the other hand, Kushina started washing and cleaning the vegetables.

Small talk was something both women enjoyed, as they cooked, while the children, the elder ones at least, set table. It was life, their life since the past year and half. She just hoped, someday, that Minato in his travel would find Katsumi-chan, and would bring her back home.

*Toruna*

The Nibi Jinchuuriki didn't seem to know the word *silence*.

It was unnerving, having to piggy-back her, especially when half of the time, she tried rubbing her breasts on him, in the hope of *seducing* him. She had stopped trying to get his name, at least. That didn't make her stop from asking hundreds of different questions. Like his allegiance to which shinobi village, if he was a sage, if he was a Jinchuuriki hater, why did he hate the Kyuubi in particular, and so on and on and on.

"Please…can I have silence Nii-san?" The man hissed, as he was on the final round of rock steps, before finally being in sight of Kumo's gate.

"No, I'm your ticket to get the waterfall of truth training huh? Then you could at least act kindly. You know…Sage-san," the blond woman spoke softly, "you've got such broad shoulders…did you train harshly?"

Toruna rolled his eyes over, why couldn't she understand he *knew* she was trying to pry out information on him.

"Not answering. You still can't walk, do you?" like he'd believe her, he knew, after the first four days, that she was able to walk on her own, but she had started insisting on a piggy-back ride. To his dismay, it was even the correct thing to do to get there faster, as it only took him two days at full speed to cover up the remaining road towards Kumo, now they just had to round the corner.

"No, I'm a wounded kitten," she teased, trying a flirty tone that sounded fake, "I can't walk yet."

"Cool, a wounded kitten coming home," the voice came slowly, from behind them, as Darui and B had been on the verge of desperation, not having found Yugito anywhere near, and having way gone past the three days of searching…

"Yo sistah! We thought you had kicked da bucket!

Instead you're coming home with a man!

Bro's going to get surprised at the racket!

That we're going to make for the happiness!" B rapped making a smile, as the man who was carrying Yugito raised an eyebrow, before ungraciously dropping Yugito on the ground, making her nimbly roll down and back on her feet.

"Ehi!" She exclaimed at the man, who made a slight grin at her.

"You *could* walk, then," he pointed out, before sighing, "You can come out, I feel you!" the sudden calling of the man to the sky made the three Kumo ninjas raise an eyebrow in surprise, was the man…mad? It wasn't until a cloud began moving, that a feathered white snake with red eyes descended down, her white wings flapping as she sped up, until coming to a near halt in front of the man, eying him suspiciously.

"I'm the white doom from above, the stalker of the skies, I'm Shiro-chan! And I don't like you," she hissed, looking at the man, "You smell of blood and snakes, and Kuro-sama told me to keep an eye out for those like you," she nimbly flew behind him, "and you'd be a *sage*? A sage of what? Fried air…" Shiro flew backwards, as from behind the man's back a black and a white snake emerged, with a clearly pissed air.

"Shut your trap you damn frothing lizard!" the black one spoke, hissing furiously, "nobody speaks to the sage of snakes like this!"

"Especially another snake!" the white snake spoke, eying the flying one badly.

Darui had gone for his sword, as B had slightly tensed. Yugito, instead, had opened her eyes in shock. She had been on his back the entire time, but she hadn't felt them under her at all.

"You two…I did teach you silence, didn't I?" the man sighed, as the two snakes on his back gulped, before slowly receding back into his mantle, "I brought her home," Toruna pointed at the woman, "I'd like a meeting with the Raikage, if possible…and without a talking scaled feather-duster eying me badly," Shiro was about to reply something witty again, but Darui shook his head at the snake, since B had shrugged at the man's comment.

"Well, we can arrange that, you did bring our little Cat back home," B spoke, "though you'd want to keep your mouth to yourself, Shiro-chan here has got a pretty fiery uncle," he added with a teasing tone to the white scaled snake, who had already flown away, to warn Kuro of the strange visitor.

"Hey, didn't you want to go to the waterfall of truth, as a reward for bringing me back?" Yugito queried, narrowing her eyes, did the man in truth lie to her, to get closer to the Raikage and kill him? Shiro had said that he smelled like snakes and blood…was he really a sage, like the Toad Sage? A Snake Sage? Was he…Orochimaru?

"The Raikage's for business, the waterfall was for pleasure," the man spoke back, shrugging, and taking slowly from within his jacket a scroll, with the Iron Land's symbol, "I've got a message for the Raikage, and that's final, I'll find him myself if I have to…" Yugito's eyes opened in surprise, the man was a messenger from the land of Iron!

"Yoh, the bro's going to see ya real soon, Samurai! Let's go Darui!" with that, B and Darui took the lead, having the Iron land's ambassador following them towards the Raikage's office, as Yugito saw people staring at her returning with smiles, waving at her, and at a certain point, she felt tackled to the side by a purple-haired Kunoichi.

"Yugito-chan! My drinking buddy is back!" Anko *was* tipsy, enormously so, as she hugged the Nibi Jinchuuriki, tightly, making both women's breast close together in something that made Darui avert his gaze, while B had a sort of lecherous attitude.

"I…I'm glad to see you too Anko-chan, but please, now's not the moment, we're escorting a messenger to the Raikage…" as Yugito pointed her gaze towards the man, who had stopped to stare back, his eyes a slight purple color, as his hair was blond with red stains, his cheeks slightly covered in scales of black and white, Anko looked for a brief moment at the man in question, slowly moving closer to him, it was probably because she was tipsy, and couldn't see well, but she could have suspected…

"Thank you mister messenger-san! I've got my drinking buddy back!" Anko exclaimed, happily, "It's not the same without someone to drink, you know," as she finished that, she just so casually stumbled forward, falling against the man's chest.

The man hissed something swiftly, as the purple haired kunoichi felt safely being held up by the man's strength, before being brought back on her footing.

"You could have died, Miss," the man spoke, slowly, as he hissed something else, and his jacket showed itself for a wriggling mass of poisonous snakes, "had I not been swift enough, they *would* have bitten you," he added, softly.

"My…that's just like…him, who taught you that?" she queried, her eyes slowly trying to carve a hole through the man's face.

"I will not answer that question," the man shrugged, before turning his gaze to B, and speaking, "The Raikage's office is this way, right? I'll find it on my own, if we don't start moving again," as he snapped that, starting to move, his insides twirled for a brief second, keeping on his speed.

"Anko-chan, I'll talk to you later, okay?" Yugito spoke, touching the woman's shoulder, to comfort her, but Anko had the same face of someone who had seen a ghost.

"Just like him…just like him…it's just like him," she kept muttering that, as, shaking her head, she stumbled towards the cemetery of Kumo.

Yugito raised an eyebrow, before following the man, the Raikage clearly wanted to see her too, probably.

A had been behind on his work schedule, as teams upon teams had been sent around, looking for Yugito, and, in the end, he had to call them back, as it was clear they had been too late to save her.

_At least she's with her Otouto now. She'll keep my son in check up there._

He grimly thought that, until B entered prancing around, together with Darui, an unknown man dressed in black and white and…

"Nii Yugito! Report!" a snapped, immediately, having to try and hide his happiness behind a stern mask.

"Ehi bro, cool down, Cat's safe, but you'd talk first with da man here, cause he's someone important," as B pointed at the unknown man, the Raikage stared for a brief moment at the person in question, who held out an Iron Land's scroll, and delivered it slowly to the Kage of Kumo, before waiting in silence for him to read the message within.

It took him fifteen minutes, before finally deciding to speak again.

"So the bastard…he didn't just kill him…he removed the beast from him, and kept it, that sick fu…" the Raikage bit his tongue, before staring at the *tracker*, "so, you're Toruna, the best tracker of the land of Iron, right?"

Toruna nodded, with a small grin, as Yugito growled just so slightly behind them.

"You made me spend weeks trying to figure out your name! You could have just said it!" the Nibi Jinchuuriki was about to pound on him, but B kept her back, hushing her to stay calm.

"So, I suppose I should get my two best trackers, one's a bit busy on a S-rank mission, so the second best would be…Yugito-san, who is going to take a week rest in Kumogakure, so she's out of the equation too," as he said that, the blond Jinchuuriki narrowed her gaze, before trying to say something, only to be interrupted by B's hand, once more, "since I want daily reports, I'll send with you Mabui-san, and then…I'll need to think about it, can it wait until the Konoha's part of the team has come in?"

Toruna shrugged as he slowly let his gaze wonder to a kid's drawing of a really menacing Raikage raining thunder on bad masked ninjas, which made the man smirk.

"That's interesting art, your son's production?" the air slowly crackled with electricity, as the tension felt a palpable increase in the atmosphere around them, as the Raikage slowly narrowed his eyes on the man.

"If you have been called to track the Kyuubi's new Jinchuuriki down, I suppose you know of the past one, if you have a death wish, know that I don't take lightly if someone offend him," as A slowly let his knuckles crack, Toruna grinned before making a cocky smile.

"Not that I care what happens to Kumo," again, the twirling in his stomach, "but attack me, and it's the land of Iron you're going to face off against…I'm a neutral entity, if I brought you offense…write a complaint letter to Mifune-sama," with that, the man turned around, only to find the Raikage staring at him with anger in his eyes, already his body was covered in electricity.

"I thought the Land of Iron had smart people as ambassadors, not bad-mouthed men," he growled slightly, as Toruna simply began chuckling.

"And I thought the Raikage's was one tough man who never showed his emotions and was the sternest Kage of all, and he's got a kids," at the snarky words, Yugito, Darui, and B had already gone to their weapon's handle, "drawing on his wall? Really? What, you dress in pink at home? I don't give a damn," Toruna's stomach twirled and twisted, again, but his face remained expressionless, if not for the wicked smile he was showing, "I've got my job to do, then I can get back home to my wife, so out of the damn way, the sooner you get me the two ninjas, the sooner I track the Jinchuuriki down." The Raikage slowly lifted a finger, in front of Toruna, before growling out.

"I'm sure you can arrange your own stay," and with that, he moved aside, letting the man, the rude man, leave.

As he left, the atmosphere slowly eased up, until Yugito gave her report, of being captured by two seemingly immortal men, and then being saved by that strange man, who had a liking for snakes, and could summon them, furthermore, he had talking snakes with him, it seemed, and was extremely crude and rude towards the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki.

"Maybe he lost someone to a Jinchuuriki going mad? He didn't seem to throw hateful glares to us, but he spoke with distaste about Naruto, I saw him whenever the argument came to the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki…he simply loathed him," Yugito tried to give an explanation to that, but couldn't come up with one that had sense, it would have meant that the man should have met with Naruto, at one point in time, and she didn't recall it...maybe in Konoha? Maybe a parent of one of Naruto's victim came from the land of Iron? It could be that, too.

As thoughts of who to send with the rude man became words, in the Raikage's office, said rude man had slowly walked towards a delicious smell, and had stopped straight in front of its primary origin.

_There's no way…even Anko here startled me, but this? Just what happened? _Toruna slowly walked inside Ichiraku's ramen, who had taken back it's early attire of a stall instead of a restaurant, did the restaurant fail without Kuro around to make giant orders, or him to pay with his gambles? No, not *him*, that idiot was dead. Killed and buried.

He slowly took a seat, only to see the owner, Teuchi, wince.

"I'm sorry sir, but that seat is reserved," as the man spoke, politely, Toruna slowly took to the seat next to him, that was empty.

"Thank you sir, what may I bring you?"

"Hum…what's this *Naruto's special*?" Toruna queried, eying the menu.

"It's a five kilos ramen special order. If you can finish it in less than ten minutes, it's free." Teuchi replied, "Nobody has yet managed the feat."

"I'll take one then," Toruna muttered, as Teuchi nodded, starting to prepare the broth, and then the ramen.

"Fate has declared we met today again, my lovely…" as the voice from behind made the man's ears concentrate on it, ignoring all the remaining sounds of the bustling road, he kept his eyes on Teuchi, waiting for his food.

"When are you going to stop with this fate crap! Damn! You got the gift?" a set of slaps and yells later, the boy's voice spoke again, getting closer.

"Fate wishes us to have ramen before…" another set of slaps and two people now stood at Toruna's left, as the empty *reserved* seat stood at his right.

"Teuchi, are you preparing another Naruto's special?" the girl spoke with a brash attitude, as she had strong muscled arms and legs, wearing a green *torn* jacket, military style, with a red bandana on her forehead, trench knifes at her belt, she stood right next to Toruna, as, on the other side of the girl, stood sitting a white robed man, who seemed to have a sort of *serene* looking face, even though he had also a black eye and held in his hands a small closed package, but the boy eyed carefully the white and black dressed man with a quizzical look, searching for a forehead protector, probably, but not finding any.

"Yes, Shoko-chan, the man at your right is challenging the mountain," Teuchi spoke, as he brought the bowl straight in front of the man in question, who swiftly broke apart the two chopsticks, and nodded at Teuchi, who started the timer.

Two minutes later he was done. The look on the girl, on Teuchi, and on Yugoro's face was priceless, as Toruna stared with a raised eyebrow at the owner of the ramen stall, he simply whispered.

"Another one, please," it took a moment to snap Teuchi out of his reverie, as he furiously began preparing another one.

"Another?" Shoko muttered, her mouth slightly agape, "Do you have a stomach or an endless pit?" as she queried that, shocked, the man raised an eyebrow in her direction.

"I'll answer that question, if you'll tell me for who that seat is reserved, miss," Toruna spoke quietly, pointing at the empty seat, as Shoko shook herself out of her state, to reply.

"It's for one of our friends…we're all waiting for him to come back," she replied, meekly.

"My stomach is an endless pit," Toruna replied, with a nod, as he once again gave the signal to Teuchi to start the timer again, as he began eating, albeit at a slower pace, the second bowl.

The second bowl was soon finished, this time in three minutes, and only then did the man query for water from the utterly shocked ramen vendor, who hoped never to have another customer as hungry as him.

"That just hit the spot," Toruna muttered, as he took little gulps of water.

"Fate has decided your…stomach is unlimited," Yugoro muttered, surprised, and Shoko didn't feel the need to smack her boyfriend down, because in a certain sense, she was shocked too.

"So it seems," Toruna replied, as he got up, raising a hand in goodbye to Teuchi, who sighed in relief that he didn't ask a third or fourth bowl.

"Well…I think I just finished the supplies for ramen, today," the old man spoke, as Shoko loudly lamented her bad luck, hitting Yugoro repeatedly for saying it was fate's way of telling her she was fat.

At least, she understood it like that.

Toruna walked slowly, as he neared the cemetery of Kumo, placed inside a hollowed out mountain, with various rows of stairs and nametags placed all around. He began reading the names, one after the other, slowly climbing the stairs until, in the end he reached for the place where Kage's were supposed to be buried. He looked perplexed at the two Kumo shinobi standing guard outside, as inside there was, laying asleep half drunken, a certain purple haired Kunoichi, *embracing* a tomb who held a single name on it.

"Naruto, son of the Raikage, lies here. May he find peace wherever he went: possibly a place with ramen..." Toruna whispered the words etched on the tombstone, words that had been said, years before, to Kuro itself, when he had told him what he wanted on a tombstone, well, not *he*, but that stupid worthless monster of Naruto. He wasn't Naruto, so it was obvious he wouldn't have said that.

The two guards said nothing, tensing just slightly as the man went in, the Kage's tomb was a public visiting spot, after all, and they didn't dare wake up Anko-san…too many bites from her snakes, after all.

What surprised them was the man coming outside, holding her within her arms, as the girl simply kept on sleeping.

"Where does this woman live?" he queried, politely, to one of the guards, who gave him the address. The man was probably just doing a good action, bringing the drunken woman back home, as probably the Kunoichi herself was already wide awake, but feigned sleep.

Toruna walked the roads, letting his senses realize the people who were following him, letting the earth whisper to him the noises and the number, the air murmur to his ear their breaths and their movements, the blood rumbling through their bodies letting him understand what they were thinking.

He got her home, actually looking at the mass of slithering snakes, and at…

"Seeing ghosts…how common," he whispered slowly to himself, as he deposited the sleeping woman on the couch, which in truth was a giant anaconda, who did its best at being like a couch, but did slowly open its eyes at the man, who had brought its owner back home. The man slowly scratched the snake on the back of his head, and, as he turned to leave, he felt himself being tugged by the extremities of his mantle.

"Please…stay," the woman whispered, as the man sighed, he had a deal with Karma after all, never leave a girl in peril, if you want to avoid bad luck.

"Yes?" Toruna slowly turned around, staring into the woman's eyes, as she stared back at him, with a small glint of hope, hope she wasn't just hallucinating in her drunken state, and also fear, fear everything would come crashing down once again.

"Stay with me…please?" she whispered, slowly removing her trench coat, "I need to…hic, get this out of the system," as she slowly spoke, the man shook his head slowly, letting one of his hands, his gloved hands, rest on her chin.

"Go to sleep, and stop drinking so much sake, it's wrong for the liver," as he whispered that, the relaxing poison inside the gloves worked its way, making the woman in question slowly close her eyes again, as sleep embraced her, a dreamless sleep, "sleep well, Oneechan," Toruna whispered to her ear, grabbing a sheet to cover her up, and then leaving from the front door, where he raised his right hand, to block the incoming slap from the Nibi Jinchuuriki, one of the people who had tailed him till there.

"What did you do to her?" she growled, as if she'd let the rude man get away with drugging and…did he do something to her friend? He was so going to pay, Iron land or not.

"Nothing, I went for a visit around town, and found her drunk, and asleep, on a tomb. I asked the guards for her address, and brought her back home."

"How did you enter her apartment, then? The snakes would…you're a snake sage then!" Yugito narrowed her eyes, "Who taught you? Was it Orochimaru? Are you a spy from Oto?" Toruna's gaze remained un-responding, as he simply sidestepped the woman, like a sort of flowing water, impossible to hold in one's grasp, and then leaving for the road.

"Where do you think you're going!" Yugito snarled, dashing closer to the man.

"Camping outside," The man replied, with a shrug, "I'll find a cave and sleep there, your Raikage *did* say I should find my own lodging," he added.

"You've got no money for a hotel?" Yugito queried, did this *tracker* go around without at least *some* cash?

"I do, but I don't want to," the man replied, "I prefer staying in caves," he added, slowly, "they reassure me."

Yugito frowned at the man's word, but kept on following him, until they reached the outskirts of Kumogakure, nearing the Hill of Snakes.

"You're going towards the filled with caves hill, right?" Yugito queried, as she suspected the man didn't know that the place was inhabited, "It's occupied by Kuro's family: they won't let you sleep there, at least, not a rude man like yourself."

"I'll prove you wrong then," the man waved at her, as Yugito had stopped, she certainly wanted to see Kuro trash the man out on the dirt and the ground. Maybe slash him a bit with air blades?

Kuro was a summon snake, so he was not bound by the laws of the Iron Land…a thing she didn't want to mention to the man.

_Snake sage or not, Kuro's going to trash you, when he learns how you think about my Otouto._

That's why Yugito stood in wait, until the man was out of sight, into the caves, and then waited, for half an hour. Then an hour, then two, three, four, she stood in wait for over five hours, but as the night finally caught on them, there was no sign of the man leaving the hill.

"Did Kuro eat him?" she whispered to herself, as she slowly looked back to the village, and the Raikage's offices, "If he did, we might need to explain…a bit of trashing was fine, eating him…"

She decided to check on the situation…tomorrow, no need disturbing the sleeping, and probably digesting, Kuro.

*Kuro*

"You are the most dumb, sadistic, lurid, wrenched, son of a bitch and extremely bastard individual I have ever know of, you under evolved ape of scattered brains of…" the insults kept coming in, one after the other, as both Yami and Hikari simply stood by, idling watching how, for the past hours, the giant feathered snake had been insulting the Snake sage. They didn't feel like butting in, however.

"Pops!" a snake, as big as Manda was, slithered in after a while, "You just used *all* the insults I know! It's unfair! I want a turn too!"

"Hey!" Toruna muttered, feigning offense.

"No *hey* me, you…you…YOU DAMN IDIOT!" With that, Kuro slithered encircling Toruna, who let the snake do that, as he could have freed himself, had he wanted to, "YOU made me think you were dead! You could have summoned ME months ago! MONTHS, you…you're fine, right?" he whispered softly, checking him out with his enormous blue eyes, "You do seem healthy enough though."

"I'm fine Kuro-mom, can I get down now?" Toruna whined, as Kuro hissed slowly, as he let the man down, only to have Yoru tackle him in a *snake*-hug.

"You made me cry rivers Boss!" Yoru whined, "And instead you were out with that adorable angel? You damn better present her to me, you got that? And I want to know everything, everything that happened! Pops been ranting at your for hours, and hours," the black snake rolled his red eyes over, "I want to know what happened! We even got to sniff your body, your dead body, and it was just like yours too!"

"Fine, I'll explain," Toruna sighed, as he gestured to Yami-chan and Hikari-kun to get closer, "this is Yami-chan, great-great-great-granddaughter of Hakuja, that one is Hikari-kun, he's the great-great-nephew of Manda," Hikari's head lowered down and got sideways, sorrow in his face, "and don't be like that Hikari! They won't judge you for that!" Toruna snapped at the snake, who nodded, as Kuro *shrugged* with his wings.

"Can't choose family, I got myself a loud-talker of a son who can't be quiet if it saved his life," Kuro said with a teasing tone.

"Well then Boss, explain everything! We're curious!" Yoru said, as he then bit his tongue, wincing, shaking his head.

"We?" Kuro queried, looking around, this *was* his inner chamber, who else was there? A realization dawned on him as he sighed, "Shiro-chan," he muttered, "Come out this instant young lady!"

"Aw…Uncle! You gave me away!" the feathered white snake slowly flew in from an upper tunnel, descending down on her uncle's head, "so he's the boss? Damn! I mean," Kuro was eying her badly for the *word*, "I mean, ops! I'm sorry I treated you badly out of Kumo, but you could have said that!" as she received another stare down from Kuro, she meekly added, "won't happen again, tail-swear," before bowing her head, as Toruna simply jumped on Yoru's own head, to pat slowly on the white snake's head, he sighed.

"Well, it's a long story…let's get comfortable."

**Author's notes**

**Cliffhanger! Damn author!**

***Remember boys and girls, don't do this to your readers, if you don't want them to come at your house to burn it down, unless you obviously didn't say your address, in which case, please do this as often as possible***

**Q&A**

**The Dojutsu will probably be Sharingan-related. (I just realized *how* many designs they made of it, really, it surprisede me)**

**LostRagDoll: We are going forward towards more pain! At least, this time, it's not Naruto whose receiving it!**

**Darkness over evil: Thank you! I hope I keeping bringing out original stuff for the story!**

**Dragonrising: Oh you will find out!**

**Hollyshortfowl: If it ever became that NaruXKushina I'm sure I'd have people banging at my door querying an immediate correction, with pitchforks and torches.**

**Dragonskyt: Don't worry, everything is going to be fine and dandy now, happiness will flow in Naruto's door, certainly…*must, repress, evil, chuckle***

**Wyrtha: we shall see about that.**

**Ezcap1st: Yamato was Naruto's teacher in root for one year, *Tree* was his codename, before it became *bird* (Anbu mask) so danzo was referring to his failure to kill Naruto's emotions effectively.**

**To those who say I'm an excellent author:**

**Please, you're making me blush! **

**For pairings:**

**I have decided! But you won't know until you read. I ain't spoilering you *who* or *How many* it's going to be, so just you wait and cross your fingers.**


	21. SH: Hiding

Twentieth-one chapter

*Flashback*

Naruto had been beaten, severely beaten, repeatedly, by Hakuja's snake-scales. It seemed impossible, but the great white snake could summon from his scale small replicas of himself, that attacked the boy while he tried his best to concentrate on *the energy of nature*.

Not only did they pounce at him, but they even bit him, repeatedly. Blood drew out from his wounds, and it did not close, at all. He no longer had the Kyuubi within him and he no longer had awesome regeneration powers, after all, he was no longer a Jinchuuriki. He was just a ninja getting beaten up by an undefeatable foe, and all while being *without* chakra. He had stared at the animal's carcasses below him, all so different, all so ravished by what seemed like unexplainable pains, their faces contorted and twisted in what would have been a painting of hell itself, drawn by a demon with a horrible taste. It was hellish.

"You are not concentrating," the White Snake spoke, after what seemed like hours of intense *beat the boy*, "You lack realization, and hindsight," he added.

"I lack chakra, Sannin-sama" Naruto replied, muttering curses, as his breathing was ragged, his bones creaked and his muscles seemed burning, he no longer had *sweat* only blood, covering his body, as he didn't even have clothes on.

"Chakra? You think chakra would work against me?" Hakuja puffed out from his cigarette a loud cloud of smoke that fell straight against the boy, who coughed, for a moment, before realizing he...felt better?

"Now you have chakra, changes anything?" with that, the beating kept up, it was even stronger than before, and more fast paced, so fast, indeed, that he couldn't even make hand signs, he couldn't draw upon medical Ninjutsus, and all he could do was hear his own body being beaten, battered, and thrown and trashed around.

"You have chakra now, what excuse will you come up next?" Hakuja hissed, as the boy stood wobbling on his right knee, breathing hard, his face more of a blue and purple color than the original one.

"None," Naruto muttered, meekly, "I have none, Sannin-sama."

Hakuja smirked, before slowly slithering out of the room, closing the only entrance with a rock, as Naruto stared at the silhouette of the white snake leaving him there, without a word. There was no need for words, after all: Naruto fell on the ground, panting, as he felt his blood mixing with the rotting carcasses around him. He was *his* prisoner, there was no way out of there until he became strong enough, or cunning enough, to escape.

This Senjutsu, whatever it was, didn't need chakra. It didn't need it, but the sage had given it to him never the less, and had left him there, alone, in the badly lit cave, to come to his own realizations.

That was the key word as the White snake spoke little, and it seemed he took great pride in letting people, or in this case Naruto, mull over his own words. He had been left alone, to think, among the carcasses. There was no sound except that of rot, and even to pick that up, it just meant there was absolute silence. The flicker of the flame soon became Naruto's lullaby, as he realized, much to his distaste, that he couldn't block out hunger for much more.

He stood up, to sit cross legged, eying the many carcasses around him, were they really people who had failed the test? Would he really be forced to eat upon them, to feed like a carrion bird to survive Hakuja's test? Was this another one of the snake's plans? Of his resolution testing?

"I lack concentration…so let's concentrate," Naruto mumbled, as he tried to close his eyes from where he was. He could hear the low grumble, now. It was low, but it soon became bigger, slowly, it crept near him, like a slithering silent snake, a small rock trembling under his passage, it wasn't the snake he was hearing, but the small pebble that trembled, the small insignificant rock that hummed and that screeched her pain into his ears, forcing him to jolt open his eyes, as a thick gust of smoke had enveloped him once more.

Naruto coughed, standing up, the feeling of being in pain gone, but a slow retarded slumber taking the better of him. Why couldn't he just lie down again, and sleep? Hakuja was standing atop him, once more, and he said nothing.

It was silent when the training began anew. At first he got more hits then he wanted, but then, slowly, he recalled his senses back to him, he had to block out the screeching pebble as he was not the pebble: he was Naruto. As his agility returned, he dodged another Snake-scale, as he had decided to call them, readying himself for countless hours, he felt the hunger creeping into him even stronger than before, but he realized many corpses around him had already brought their rotting to a more advanced stage, while other, fresher, had barely arrived. Had the snake added more? Did more come to be trained while he slept, and had they lost to him? He wouldn't die there. He had a home to return to. He fought back, for the first time, after countless times of dodging and being pushed around, biting straight into the side of one of those smaller snakes, tearing a good chunk of flesh from it, and biting it down as he kept his purpose clear, dodge and eat, eat and survive, he wasn't going to die there, no matter the blood that oozed from his mouth made him look feral, no matter the glint in his eyes already turning to that of a caveman, who sought out the prey, he wanted to survive, he had to survive to go home, and he would have survived.

Hakuja winced, when the boy actually grabbed the guts to bite at him, him! The great white sage, the leader of all snakes, had been bitten by a boy who seemed so much concentrated that he hadn't even realized just how his body had been changing, in the time he had been left alone. Yet, all in all, the boy was a wonder. He needed few words, and he understood with great ease. Orochimaru too had tried, and failed to prove his resolution, the boy was already at the next step of it, and he was showing signs of getting ready for the next one too. Hakuja hadn't thought the boy would tap into the nature chakra that quickly, but he had, and hadn't he felt it immediately, he would have even gone as far as completely transforming into a snake, but he had been kept in control, as the white snake's cigarette smoke was able of doing many wonders, and many more when it was swung. He was a prodigy, or was it simply him being a hard worker? Still, Hakuja was proud, the boy didn't feed from the carcasses, like any weak willed bigot would, he challenged him, with every step, his determination was the real stuff, and for that, well, he was willing to sacrifice a few grams of his enormous being, who tasted awfully, but the boy didn't seem to mind. At one point, the attacks ceased, as the boy's body was battered, bruised, and covered in blood once more, yet, as Hakuja was about to leave, he heard croaked words, croaked words coming at him from a voice that wasn't broken, at all.

"More," the voice muttered, "I'm not done yet, Sannin-sama."

The Snake grinned, the boy was really interesting, really interesting to see!

"You could feast upon the eggs of the hatchery, you know?" Hakuja hissed, turning around, "I won't lock you in, if you wish for them, you just have to follow the right side of the cave," he added.

"No," Naruto replied, sitting down, "I'll wait for the next training then, Sannin-sama" he added, slowly, taking deep breaths, as the white snake simply left, leaving him alone, but this time, not closing the cave filled with carcasses with the enormous stone.

The boy would fall to hunger, eventually, Hakuja was sure of it, as he slowly slid back onto his throne, waiting his eyes closed, as he felt the boy moving, ha! He was going to the hatchery! A liar he was, and he'd pay for it in the next training.

Still, Hakuja couldn't help but feel a tinge of interest, why was the boy carrying a carcass with him? Was he going to eat the eggs with it? Did he think that any other snake would barge up on him, and he'd use the carcass as a shield? Why not use Jutsus then? Oh, maybe they made too much noise, those he knew. Hakuja hissed shaking his head, he had to see it, this boy was just going to make his life so much more interesting than the noisy rants of Manda about prey and Orochimaru.

The white snake had decided to give but a peek, at the boy, and in that peek, with his entire body hidden in the shadows of the cave, he had seen more than enough to smile.

The boy was feeding the recently hatched eggs with the carcass, teaching them not to eat each other...and the snakes who didn't listen were brought apart one from the other, even as the boy's hand bloodied with each try, but he didn't stop, until they all listened to him, a wriggling mass of snakes, standing to attention to a single boy, a single bloodied, battered and repeatedly hit boy, who still fed them and spoke to them.

*Flashback Interruptus*

"That's where he met me," Hikari said proudly, "I was getting badly beaten up by my sisters and brothers, and he shielded me with his hands, and fed me," as the black snake said that with a hiss, nodding to himself, Yami rolled her eyes over.

"Yes, we get it, you were the first snake, okay, now let him talk more about it," Yami replied, "The next part is better!" she hissed with a grin. Yoru raised an eyelid, but said nothing, as he let Toruna keep his talk.

*Flashback*

"So who is he?" Hakuja queried, as he once more prepared himself to train the boy, who sported a small shivering snake on his head.

"He's Hikari, Sannin-sama" Naruto replied, nodding slowly, as the small young snake on his head was starting to think that sticking around with the boy wasn't going to let him save himself when his great something dad came to eat him up, together with the boy, "and he's my friend," well, he was bound to be eaten up one day or another, getting eaten together with the boy meant he would have company in hell.

"You don't intend on feeding on him?" Hakuja hissed, as his *snake-scales* began appearing once more.

"No! He's my friend! I told you I won't back down on my words! I'll make you see you're wrong!" the white snake sage grinned, as he began his attack.

Hikari, for his own part, held tightly onto the boy's head, to every single bit of hair he could get his scales on, even surrounding his forehead like a bandana, once the hair became slippery from the sweat and the speed.

"He's slowing you down," Hakuja hissed, "abandon him or you won't manage to feed."

"So what?" Naruto barked back, as he tried, but failed, to bite upon another one of those snake scales, "It just means I'll be hungry until he can hunt with me, then we'll eat more!"

"Or you will die now, as you forgot how to call me," the white snake pointed that out, as immediately, more than twenty snake-scales jumped on the boy, who, knowing there was no defense, or escape, grabbed Hikari.

_There, now he'll learn to abandon…what!_

Hakuja stopped his attack for a brief second, as the boy was holding Hikari tightly embraced, while staying in a ball, he was protecting the small snake, ready to take on the bulk of the attack, the clearly lethal attack, that the white snake sannin, in the end, made happen, because the Sage wasn't one who didn't mean business. Naruto's back was literally carved away by bites and fangs, by pushes and scales, but he didn't change his action, he didn't stop once or cry, but he simply held on. Eventually the sage would grow annoyed, or let him go, that was his thought on the matter.

The giant white snake, actually, stopped, retreating his snake-scales, and turning, annoyingly, to leave.

"Well, tomorrow, when this will happen again, you will find out that hunger and a battered body won't get you food," as he left, closing, this time again, the rock door, Hakuja shook his enormous head. The boy was determined, but he'd need to take a stand, true strength came from one, not from two. Everyone lived alone, and everyone died alone. The rest were barely acquaintances, and murdering parents and children. He had grown up on that, becoming the strongest, he had no use for friends, family, or anything that wasn't strong or useful. The boy would learn.

Eventually, Hakuja returned for another lesson and Hikari was gone from the boy's blood stained hair, the result of him swiping his mouth off the blood from his bites, and using his hair to clean them.

"So you ate him?" Hakuja queried to the boy, who shook his head.

"He certainly didn't leave, but I didn't eat him, Sannin-sama" Naruto replied, "let's train, and you'll find out."

The white snake grinned, he knew precisely where Hikari was, but he wanted to see why the snake was hiding there, maybe they thought, stupidly, to outsmart him and to escape so early? The arrogance: he could be extremely fast even beyond his size, and they'd learn that.

The training went by once more, as Naruto hit the ground repeatedly, but Hikari didn't seem to move from his hiding spot, and that was making Hakuja think that, probably, they'd simply wait until the end of the beating, to do something.

As he was about to recede the last of the snake-scales, that was the moment Hikari struck at it, rolling against it and slicing it down with a quick movement of the tail.

It fell dead, on the ground, blood oozing from the wound as Naruto dashed for it, grabbing it and Hikari, and staring straight into the surprised Hakuja.

"I saw how you have this things stiffen up before re-entering your body. That's when they get easier to cut down…and I gave Hikari wind-chakra, so he cut it down, Sannin-sama" at that, Hakuja waited for a careful moment, before staring down at the boy.

"How?" It was the first time, actually, that the white snake sage was questioning someone about something he honestly didn't know. Maybe it was in one of the really old and mushy books of his really late and dead great-great-great grandfather, who he had killed and eaten for the position, but truthfully, he didn't expect that, in…a couple of days of time, between one lesson and the other, to let the boy starve, he had taught something to the black snake, and had made him able to cut down...their lunch.

"This is the fruit of our conjoint labor," Naruto muttered to Hakuja, "we worked together, so we share it, and we both grow stronger because of it," he added slowly, "I know I'm right, and I'll keep proving it to you, Sannin-sama!"

*Flashback end*

"And then he laughed," Toruna said, as he gulped down a glass of water, courtesy of Shiro-chan, "thanks, and yes…he laughed weirdly, nearly choking on his cigarette holder, and he kept ranting about *interesting! Interesting!* kept at it for a good time, I thought he was going to hug me, yeah, Him hugging ME, couple of weeks later, Yami-Oneechan joined the group,"

"Yami…Oneechan?" Yoru queried, slightly nervous, "why wasn't I ever called Oniisan!" he lamented.

"Technically, your father, Kuro here, is my best friend and brother, so I'd be your uncle, if you really want to be called something, it would be nephew," Toruna pointed that out, before speaking again, "and she *was* older, or younger, it depends on the physique or the mind…turns out their bodies grow quickly, but their minds take time, for the species that Hakuja belongs to, so…"

"I was basically a giant white scaled snake with the mind of a little girl," Yami muttered, "until he and Hikari taught me to speak, and then *I* took on the serious aspect that *those* two seemed to have lost," the white snake shook her head, "that was still nothing, compared to when *he* actually learned the Body Shedding Jutsu, he stood very quiet for a while afterwards, and then he and, well, *my ancestor* talked. Don't know what he told him, but they left together, and *Toruna* came back a couple of days later, completely washed out of colors."

"Eh, you know how that technique makes you feel?" Toruna shivered at the recollection, "No way I'm doing that *ever* again, unless it's important, really, it's just…plain wrong!"

"Well, anyway, what happened during that time?" Kuro queried once more, "wait…that technique…you used that to feign being dead! That means you could have tried to escape then! Why didn't you try and get away?"

"That's why Naruto died that day, and Toruna was born, Kuro," the man spoke quietly, "I could have tried to run, mind you, but Hakuja knew I wouldn't, and I didn't need to: I would leave when I was ready. I was beaten, battered, bruised, hit, tortured for most of my life, but at least with Hakuja I learned things from that, it was the difference, and it would make me stronger…and do you think I'd leave the next batches of hatchlings to the old system the snakes used? Not a chance in hell," Toruna shook his head decisively, before jumping down from Yoru's head, to land straight in the middle of Yami and Hikari.

"Took me a long, long while, but in two years, I was done. Especially when I recalled *what* my specialty was…Hakuja-san, because in the end he let me use that to call me, said I should have used it in the beginning…but I didn't want to feel like I was cheating my way through…I was thinking he'd EAT me if I tried anything except obeying," Toruna slightly shivered, "and it was at that point, that he finally decided to explain to me why I kept dreaming of being an overly traumatic screeching pebble, you know, I was starting to think that talking to snakes only was making me go ballistic in the mind."

"You *are* mind damaged, Boss, you feigned being dead to everyone!" Yoru snapped, "I mean, a *I'm off training* wouldn't have been the same!"

"Yoru," Kuro spoke, "if he had been alive, what do you think would have happened then? Wouldn't *she* come for him again?"

"Good point pops, but not sufficient enough, I mean…what did you have to hide yourself from? Could have left a note, a warning, something, not blood all over the cave and a dead body," Yoru replied, at which point, Toruna sighed, scratching the back of his head.

"Truthfully? Hakuja had feigned my death to his snakes, keeping me cloistered from the other grown ones until I was strong enough to kill those who couldn't be converted…next time Orochimaru summons Manda, he's going to be in for a surprise…" Toruna muttered, "so I had to feign the death also for the living…I mean…he had me kill his son to avoid Orochimaru knowing anything, so it was something akin to a mutual sacrifice. Plus, he did offer me *the master scroll of snakes* and that's why I came to see you here Kuro…I'm thinking of merging the two together. It took me a while, but the upper echelons of the snake summons are mostly cleared, and can be filled with yours, while the youngest ones are seeing change, because of me and Yami and Hikari, and Hakuja has promised he won't eat anyone, at all…he did coin the term *giant feather duster* though…so he might use it," That made Kuro wince for a second, before shaking his head with a sigh, that even let a small cloud of smoke out of his mouth.

"You're the boss and my friend, *Toruna*, and you know that I trust you, just as you trust me. So let's get some meat on your bones, because I'm sure you haven't been eating anything, just look at your cheeks!" Kuro pouted, a thing that made Yoru roll his eyes over.

"Mother Snake mode engaged in three, two, one," and with that, Shiro-chan was tasked with a…morning delivery of the entire ramen supply of Kumo, because a feast was going on that day.

"On another note, *Toruna*, are you by any chance the author of… *A murdering of snakes* and *The Hiss collection*? Shiro-chan just can't seem to stop blabbering about that horror author," Yoru spoke, since his *niece* was gone for the present.

"Yeah well, I started writing to ease my stress out, and then I took up the profession to cash in some money, as Hakuja didn't drop me close to Kumo, or Konoha, no, he dropped me straight in the middle of the frigging three wolves mountain, straight in a mound of snow," Toruna gritted his teeth at the memory, "the damn cold and the damn snow and the damn blizzards," he shivered just at the recollection.

"I was *naked* mind you, completely and utterly naked, in the snow, until I tore apart a couple of wolves, and then I was a wolf-pelt clad man walking in circles in a blizzard, until I found a cave to rest in," he added before shaking his head, "and obviously don't I find in the cave a cove of bandits?"

"Yeah, we thought he'd have called us for something like finding the way to the nearest town, instead, we end up in a damn cold cave, me and Yami-chan," Hikari spoke, "spitting fire and air blades at bandits, with him naked in wolf clothes yelling *Give me your clean underwear!* and…"

"I did not yell that!" Toruna replied, eying the smirking snake badly, "I might have yelled something about *clothes* but not underwear!"

"Anyway, the bandits dealt with, and scared to the death the surviving one because of his…*prowess*," Yami-chan chuckled at that, as did Kuro and Yoru, "we dispersed and he then came up with a band of Samurais," Toruna nodded, taking the word next.

"Yeah, searching party for the bandits, once the blizzard died down, it turned out they were waiting for them to ambush them and bring them to Mifune. I was thanked and paid for the job they were supposed to do, Honor code and all, so I…kind of fit in," Toruna looked to the side, before letting out a heartfelt sigh.

"I hated my weak self, my weak pitiful past self who believed not everything was out to kill me, I lost a dear friend that day, when I died, at least, friend, distrusted entity, she still was someone I valued and I hated myself for that, I truly resented being me, being someone who had believed to be safe, only because he was surrounded by friends," Toruna spoke slowly, anger filling his word, "A shinobi is never safe, a samurai is never safe, one whose hands are covered in blood is never, at all, safe. We are born in danger and we die in danger, we can feel at ease, but forgetting what we are in…that's what killed me, Kuro, I did die in that cave, when the Kyuubi was extracted by my so called father and with my mother present there. I died, and the only reason I came back was because the old man who sealed the Kyuubi in me thought that Danzo, the man who helped me to get back home in the first time, would try and remove the Kyuubi if I was ever deemed worthless, the old man's face…it was filled with grief and sorrow, Kuro, he was a shinobi, a strong one, and he was grieving for me and for my future…he hoped I'd achieve happiness eventually…so I did the only thing I could do…I actually died in that cave. I am *not* Naruto, I am Toruna, and Naruto is the thing I hate and despise the most, Kuro, understand this, I can't stand my former self, I left him in that cave. I will return to be him only on my deathbed, and it hurts," he muttered, "it hurts like hell to see my Oneechans crying or being covered in grief, it hurts to see people calling me or reserving seats for when I come back, but I can't, I can't do that, and I hate Naruto even more for that, he made everyone around him cry and be sad, and I will not let him keep this up. If they tie me down, I risk being happy Kuro, and if I'm happy…then someone will come to take it away. I'd rather rot in sorrow and sadness, as long as it keeps them all alive…"

"You truly think that, boy?" Kuro spoke slowly, as he carefully eyed the sorrow and the torn face of the man in front of him, "what are you hiding, that my eyes see?"

"I made a promise Kuro," Toruna spoke softly, "I promised the Kyuubi I'd free her from her new host, that's why I became the best tracker of the Land of Iron, why I insisted with Mifune to be sent here, to track it down, I lied to the man who gave me trust, Kuro! I lied to the chief of the land of iron, who expects me to come back and tell him I completed my mission! Instead I'm going to free the Kyuubi, and then I'm going to battle it to death, because she won't go around without harming no-one, I know it!" he exclaimed, "and she knows it too, I'm strong, Kuro, but will I be able to defeat the Kyuubi? I don't know," he added, with a sorrowful expression, "But I will not go back on my words…I'm sorry I failed you, as a friend…" he meekly whispered the last part, expecting something, anything, to come from the black snake's mouth, but all he got was a chuckle.

"You're forgetting something, boy," Kuro spoke, "I am Kuro the Wind Snake, the slithering darkness of the night, the biter of the apocalypse, and you and I are friends, savior and saved, brothers in all but blood, you think it's the right thing to do? Then I'll try and convince you it is wrong, but mark my word, I'll stick with you till the end, because I trust you, and I know you trust me, right? But more than that…I know you'd never lie to me, Naruto or Toruna, that doesn't matter, I know where your heart stays, boy, and I know what you wish to achieve…so I'll stay with you till the end, can't let you suffer alone, after all," at that, the giant snake made an enormous wink at the man, who stood silent, for a moment.

Toruna closed his eyes for a moment, before nodding, trying to wash back the tears. He was Toruna, the twenty-five years old man who was the best tracker of the Iron lands, not Naruto, the fourteen year old boy trapped in a man's one. He was not going to cry.

"And I am Yoru, I am the trail blazer of the plains, the burner of Armageddon, Yoru the flame snake!" as Yoru yelled that out loud winking at Toruna, "and you're the boss, and you've got pops trust, so who am I to say no?"

"Aw! That was what he meant, when he said about introductions!" Hikari whined, "I should have prepared one…like…hum…"

"I am Yami, the scornful scorcher of sorrows, the scaly flamethrower, Yami, the fiery snake! And I'll stick with Toruna-kun till the end of the world!" as Yami actually hissed that out repressing a laugh to herself, Hikari's face turned pitiful.

"Not fair! Well then…I'm Hikari, the black…hum…the black scale of the…shadows, the wind blade of the snakes, I am Hikari, the cutting snake!"

"Cutting snake?" Toruna actually started to cry tears of laughter, as he bent in two, "That sounds so emo-ish! Oh Kami please…no more!" as everyone else started laughing, Hikari rolled his eyes over, pouting.

"I'll find something better then, you'll see! It's going to leave you in awe!"

"Shiro, the…" as a female voice was about to begin her introduction, since she had returned, Hikari whined even harder, as the white flying snake stopped for a second, not understanding why everyone was laughing out loud.

"What's going on uncle?"

"Ahahaha nothing, no-nothing at all!" Yoru used the tip of his tail to remove *snake tears* he hadn't had a laugh like that in years…it was just the boy, or the man's presence, it took out the best of them, who cared about fighting the Kyuubi to near death? The boy was worth it!

"I'm sure you promised Mifune, however…wouldn't you be trampling on that promise?" at that moment, Kuro realized that the leader of the land of iron doubtfully would have let him go, without the promise to complete the quest, with that, the laughter died out.

"That's why…after I free the Kyuubi, I'll seal it again, for that I mastered Fuinjutsu," Toruna spoke quietly, he simply couldn't lie about his intentions, "and then I'll have it delivered to Kumo," Kuro's gaze narrowed slightly.

"So you'd subject another one to your pain?" he queried, not that it actually mattered to Kuro, sure, it was an innocent, but how many did Naruto tear up to learn medical jutsus? He had walked over it, and Kuro had slithered upon it, innocence was bound to be lost, eventually.

"Not if I can avoid it…I know for sure that once the Jinchuuriki loses the Bijuu, he *dies* because his heart stop beating, and he has no more chakra in the body. So having chakra transferred, and a swift heart massage could save the Jinchuuriki in question, if done swiftly enough, and if the chakra in question is Yin and Yang chakra," he added, slowly, "that's how he saved me from death," he whispered.

"Then it's fine, when is the ramen coming around, Shiro-chan?" Kuro queried his granddaughter, who pouted back.

"It's not! Somebody ordered two Naruto's special, and supplies are finished until next week!" the laughter of the mountain complex turned to howls of pain, as Toruna slowly became more comfortable, but never, ever again, too relaxed.

*Kumo*

"So he's married? I didn't see a ring on his finger, you know," Anko spoke quietly, hearing the words of Yugito as both woman were heading towards the Hills of Snake, to see if the tracker from the Iron Lands had been eaten or not.

"You were dead drunk when I came to check on you, seemingly drugged, too, he just dropped you on the couch, and that was all?" Yugito queried, worried.

"Yeah! He even scratched the Couch Two's head, like it was normal, I admit I was the one who tried to jump on him, but he put me to sleep in such a way," Anko chuckled, before shaking her head clean of thoughts, "Well, anyway, I'm not Mitarashi Anko for nothing, I'll have him spit out where he learned that stuff from and," laughter erupted from the cave they had barely reached, the entrance to the snake's summon mountain, as the two *Tail* snakes, their headbands tied to their necks, who were guarding outside rolled their eyes over, it had been going on for quite a while too, "what was that?" Anko finished her sentence with the question to which the snakes simply shook their heads, they didn't know, but it was damn noisy so early in the morning.

"I hope they aren't laughing about how good the tracker tasted, the Raikage isn't going to like it at all…and tomorrow is the day too," Yugito spoke softly, as, after all, the next day *would* be the ten of October, "it would be bad to have to prepare for a war because of it," she added.

"So speak the woman who could have avoided that," Anko replied with a shrug, as they entered the cave, the laughter dwindling to a stop, before they finally reached Kuro's chambers, where a party with an enormous pot of Ramen was going on.

"It's cold," Kuro muttered, "I understand it was in storage, but it's cold never the less," the black snake muttered, as he gulped down the food.

"Not my fault, next time you learn not to bet against the Snake Sage Toruna, the best tracker of the land of Iron!" as the man said that, Yugito and Anko stared at the scene, before Shiro came flapping by to close their mouths, open wide, with the tip of her tail, slapping them out of their stupor.

"Hi Anko-chan, Yugito-chan! Pops is having a chat with his new contractor," Shiro replied, with a small hiss, as she then flew towards her own bowl of ramen.

"What!" Yugito screeched that, as she dashed straight in front of Kuro, "Why!" she couldn't believe it, the rude man had to be lying to Kuro, clearly, after all he hated her Otouto, Kuro's best friend! He should have…well, not killed, but trashed him around! Not been eating bowls of ramen with him!

"He is the sage of snakes, and he has brought change to the way the snakes worked, from within," Kuro hissed, "he did that which the boy I loved like a brother promised to do, and for that, no matter how rude he is, I respect him, and deem him worthy of all my summons…and I accept the merging of the scroll of snakes and of ours, since it would be stupid not to," Yugito looked at him, then at the man, whose eyes, now better lit, were clearly a dark blue color, not purple, as she had thought in the beginning, and the man was smiling, and that smile, it nearly reminded her of…

"Anyway, let's not talk about the dead," as the man spat that out with a tinge of venom, Yugito's face hardened again, no, the man was a rude bastard, "has the Raikage decided on who will accompany me? Or are you here to ask me something?"

"Anko-chan here has a question!" The purple haired Kunoichi spoke, raising her hand in a smiling tone, "where's your marriage ring, if you're married? And if you're not married, do you swing that other way, since you haven't done steamy naughty things with me, last night?" as she queried that with a teasing tone, the mountain howled once again with laughter from Kuro and the other snakes, those who could laugh, that is.

"Oh Kami I can't keep this up, I'm going to die…" Kuro muttered as he kept on laughing.

"I'm betrothed, that's like being married, as a contract is a contract," Toruna replied, well, he had prepared his lie well, for any possible implications, at least, he hoped that Anko, being the expert in interrogation that he knew of, didn't actually *torture* him, "and I wouldn't have touched someone who clearly wasn't in her right state of mind," he added, slowly.

"Aw…a gentleman, a proud samurai by heart! I'm sure you're the cherry of your team, right?" Anko replied, sticking her tongue out, as one of Toruna's veins bulged on the man's forehead, before realizing what the woman was doing, and chuckling.

"Two can play that game, and I know what hurts you the most, woman," the man replied, narrowing his gaze on Anko, who shivered, as those eyes that looked at her were cold and steeled, like a snake ready to ounce at his prey, "and trust me, I would leave you a nervous wreck on the floor, crying on a tomb? You know nothing of what I can do to you by sheer use of words," he slowly added, "and if you're coercing me into attacking you, through words…well, just try it again, and we'll see."

Yugito moved in front of the man, as she had seen Anko's face pale, while the snakes around had kept quiet, now.

"She was just joking with you! There was no need to…"

"I am not someone to joke with, Nii-san," Toruna replied, switching his gaze from Anko to Yugito, "I am someone who will work with what your Raikage will offer, and that is final," he added.

"Toruna-san, you could at least try and get along with others," Yugito gritted her teeth, as she spoke, trying to mentally recall *not* to lash out at the man in front of her, "and pouring salt on wounds, especially today and tomorrow, won't make things easier for when the other team mate will be picked," she added.

"Why? I thought there would be an enormous line of volunteers, differently from Konoha the boy here was liked, wasn't he? No matter how harsh and crude the extremely beautiful me is; I'm sure there will be no problem finding some idiot who'd throw his life away for that brat," as Toruna snapped that, Yugito narrowed her eyes. Kuro was silent, and his gaze was sorrowful, not angry. Something wasn't right, at all, everyone in the room, every snake, that is, was sorrowful, not angry at the man. It wasn't the emotion she had expected. She had expected anger, like the one seeping from Anko who had stomped straight in front of the man, pushing her aside, and had then raised a hand, ready to slap the man.

"What? The Snake mistress of Konoha wishes to say something else? Or do you prefer being called Onee…" Toruna didn't finish the sentence, as Anko slapped him repeatedly, tears dwelling in her eyes.

"Don't you dare use that! DON'T YOU DARE!"

"Jagei Jubaku" Toruna whispered silently, his voice icy and cold, as snakes sprouted from the ground entrapping the crying Kunoichi within their spires, but just as Yugito tried to move in her aid Yami and Hikari stood in front of her, hissing slowly, not that she knew them, she just saw a big as her white snake and a big as her black snake, hissing at her.

"What are you doing! She's…" Yugito's words died in her mouth, as the man turned to face her while raising an eyebrow.

"She attacked a messenger from the Land of Iron, therefore, her life is mine to decide, from now on, and until Mifune-sama will judge her, she will work for me," Toruna pointed out, "or I can kill her right now, if that is what you wish for, Nii-san," he added.

"Just kill me already, I'd rather die than work for a wretched bastard like you," Anko spoke, spitting straight in the face of the man, who seemed unfazed.

"Oh well, a pity, you'd think the same if I told you that *he* might still be alive?" Yugito and Anko shivered, at his words. What? No, there was no way it was true, the man was lying, toying with them.

That was when Kuro tensed up slightly, and Yugito knew the reason the giant snake wouldn't come to their aid, she knew it, now she knew it…

"You know something that made Kuro accept you, what is it?" she whispered, staring at the man, who looked back at her with a soft chuckle.

"First answer my question, Nii-san, I asked you: should I kill her or should she work for me?" as the man pointed at Anko, the Nibi bit her lip, staring at the face, the face torn in doubt, of her friend, the man was a damn crude sadistic bastard, a hellish man born only of the deepest pits of evil.

"She should work for you," she whispered, she couldn't let her be killed, not when there was a chance he was still alive, somewhere…maybe she'd be called Oneechan once more.

Anko was dropped by the snakes, and fell on the ground, coughing and breathing in air for her lungs: the snake's spires had constricted her pretty well, but hadn't broken off anything in particular.

His grip…his attitude…it all reminded her of one person: Orochimaru.

"Now that we have fixed your attitudes, is there anything else you want from me?" he queried, but as Yugito slowly, and carefully, shook her head, Anko muttered something.

"You know Orochimaru," she whispered, barely audible, "How can you expect to be trusted? You could be a fake," she added.

"The Raikage read the scroll, and my strength is second to none…trust me on this, woman: you'd be dead, if I wished for it, now get up, you are mine until Mifune-sama judges you, and for that reason, you'll tell me everything you know about the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, Naruto…every single thing."

"That's nothing more than torture!" Yugito screeched, as, however, the snakes intercepted her once more.

"Then, next time, she'll keep her hands in place. I'll have a written report, by the time the Konoha team gets here, I want it completely detailed of everything he did, and that you knew of, and of every little quirk he had. Understood?" Anko trembled as she nodded, slightly shivering when she got up, and started to wobble towards the exit, before turning around for a second, realizing something.

"You haven't answered… Why do you think he's still alive?" she whispered as Yugito too realized the man was avoiding the question.

"Well, Orochimaru is pretty much alive, isn't he? Or who were you thinking my *he* was about? Certainly not the dead boy that lies in that tomb! He's dead, get over it," as Anko clenched her fist, she slowly left, while Yugito, her gaze murderous, stared at the man, and then at Kuro.

"Kuro…why?"

"Nii-san, I am sorry, I am bound not to harm any of my contractors," he replied, a soft lie, but a needed one.

"I understand…but one day, I'll make you eat up your words," Yugito replied, pointing at Toruna, who shrugged, as the Nibi Jinchuuriki ran after her friend, to comfort her.

"That was cruel…" Yami replied, as she slowly moved close to Toruna's face, "and I think I've got some dirt on my scales near my neck," The white snake slowly moved her neck sideways, the white and perfect scales without a speck of dirt, "could you look closer at it?" and without words, Toruna pressed his slowly filling with tears face on the snake's neck.

It was hard…He knew it would be hard, to spew such words, act in such a way, but he had to. It was the only way to avoid them recognizing him, linking Toruna to Naruto. He was sure it was the only way, the only way to ease the pain. They had to snap out of their sorrow of him, he had seen how Anko had been living the past three years. If she wasn't coming out of it the right way, she had to come out of it the hard one, same with Yugito, and the others: if sorrow kept lingering, then only hatred and anger would make them forget it...and he would gladly take it all, it was his fault, after all.

It was always his fault.

*Konoha's team*

"So…that was interesting," Kakashi muttered, as he stared at the panting and covered in sweat Yakumo, who had conjured a sort of giant Naruto armed with Katana to fend off a band of brigands, "really interesting," the copy-cat ninja added, to make his point.

"Yeah…" Sakura muttered, as Yakumo began slightly blushing, "I mean…not every day you see something like that," she added, carefully, "anyway…why do we have to make a trip till Kumo? Couldn't they meet us half-way?"

"You never know, Sakura-chan, I suspect that, probably, the Raikage wanted to see who would go look for the bastard…he might even test you out, before storming to Konoha and asking Danzo why he didn't send the two best trackers," Kakashi replied, as Yakumo's gaze turned sideways, and a little filled with grief.

"What if we the tracker has no lead to take?" Yakumo muttered, "We'd have to go around all of the elemental lands, we might stay years away…or even all our life," she slowly added, suddenly, the fact she hadn't given enough goodbye hugs to her family was making her feel a tinge of regret.

"Well, if it happens it happens, but for the Kyuubi, I'm sure the leader of the samurais would spare his best tracker, and if he's the best tracker of the land of Iron, it won't take much, I hope," Sakura muttered back, as Kakashi winced, there was something he was trying to recollect.

"You know, the best tracker of the land of Iron is Toruna of the snakes," at that, something clicked into Kakashi's head, "he is also the author of the books Rin-chan likes so much," he slowly added, "and he's ranked as an extremely highly skilled figure in his country," he noted.

"Kakashi-sensei? Why didn't you say that sooner!" Yakumo muttered in awe, she loved Toruna's horror stories, albeit it did make her cringe going to bed, thinking that snakes would slowly hiss their way on her body, to devour her a bit at a time…and that was just of the many situations the protagonist found itself in.

"If it's the best he decided to spare and even then, is he really skilled?" Sakura muttered back, maybe she'd get an autograph for her mother, if it actually was the case, but she was sure she'd never see the end of it afterwards, though.

"He's an extremely powerful shinobi, Sakura-chan, but he's also known the most ruthless killer for the samurais," Kakashi pointed that out, "the reason I actually didn't recall it till now was because I only read of him once, since he's a neutral entity he's not on any bingo books, but he did publish some tracking-tips books, and his ways of turning tracking into murdering…well, let's just say even I take tips from him," at that, Yakumo's and Sakura's eyes turned wide in stupor, as they set up camp.

"So we just have to hope for the second best, right?" Sakura whispered to Yakumo who nodded, as Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"Because," Yakumo said back to Kakashi, "we are the one who are going to kill that bastard, and avenge Naruto," at the girl's words, Kakashi's eyes turned into a smile thanks to his Genjutsu.

"If you don't mind, I'd like a piece too," as both girls nodded at Kakashi's words, silence fell on the camp, as everyone took to rest for the journey ahead. They'd arrive towards the beginning of November, probably, and the next day was, for them, the tenth of October. A day none of them actually liked, at all.

*Otogakure's team*

"So we just have to get to Kumo before the Konoha team?" Karin queried, as Sasuke growled for the third time in fifteen minutes.

"Yes, Karin-san," he muttered, narrowing his gaze in front of him, "so we have to be there by the end of October," he added, "as the weaklings of Konoha will take their leisure time to get there," he whispered.

"Tomorrow we have to stop for the day though," Sumire said, in a serious tone, "I have to do a birthday party for me and my Oniisan," at those words, Tayuya was about to say something, but Karin's quick glance at her with her right hand placed in a *silence* position made her shut her mouth, as, after all, it was Sasuke who decided to speak.

"Why not mourn him? He's dead and…"

"Shinkuken!" Sasuke dodged to the side, as the trees on which they had been running on, dashing from branch to branch, suddenly were cut by wind blades.

"EHI I'M…"

"Shinkuken! Shinkuken! Shinkuken!" Sasuke scowled, as he easily, thanks to his eyes, dodged all of the wind blades, his gaze finally fixing on that of the girl who had been attacking him for the past minutes, his sharingan staring deep into the eyes of Sumire, before she fell limp, under the effect of a Genjutsu.

"You shouldn't speak badly of her Oniisan, squad leader," Karin teased with a chuckle, "she'll keep trying to murder you now, until you say you're sorry," she added.

"Then I'll drop her here," Sasuke replied, they were all dead-weight, that they were.

"And when she'll break free, she'll come to murder you in your sleep you fucktard," Tayuya sweared, "I'm a bitch but she's far worst! Last time someone did a thing like that in the dining hall there were entrails everywhere, and *I* had to clean it up!"

"Oh yes…with the French-maid costume, right? I thought that Kabuto-san was a closet pervert for a while, but that did give him away," Karin replied, as Sasuke's stare remained hard on the fallen in the Genjutsu girl.

"Well, what are you going to do, spiky?" Tayuya muttered to the boy in front of her, who seemed lost in his thoughts.

He blinked once, before turning around, as Sumire came back to her senses.

"Fine! Only because you apologized I'm letting you go! No more talking about my Oniisan!" and with that, Karin and Tayuya sighed in relief, as they started their run once more.

*Jiraiya-Kumo-10 October*

The Toad sage had gone back to Kumo, knowing full well what the day ahead of him was going to be, and having heard of just who the tracker was, wishing to meet him. Truth be told, he wanted to meet a fellow writer-shinobi, who sold books and who had recently taken his place as the richest shinobi from books earnings, the man had to be swimming in money, literally. Another reason was curiosity, Toruna-san's history, past the point of him being found naked in the land of Irons, in a bandit's cove, were a mystery to everyone, even to the best spy of his spy network. What he did know, was that the man was an outright rude individual, who did his job perfectly, but who had no qualms insulting and belittling his *prey*. He was the best tracker there was, however, and now that he had queried more about him, he knew he used snakes. Suddenly the connection of him being the man Zabuza met made sense, but since the mist Nin wasn't there any longer, the mist ambassador having already left, there was no way to make sure, unless asking the Tracker in question. A thing he was bound to do, if only he hadn't been met at the gates by the man himself.

"I smelled toad stench from yesterday, knew you were bound to come along, Toad Sage," the man muttered, as he slowly let his hood come down on his shoulder, to reveal red-stained dirt blond hair, dark blue eyes, and cheeks slightly covered in black and white scales, as on his back there stood the Kanji for Sage, Jiraiya had no doubt who the man was…and his arrogance, well, that was to be expected too.

"Toruna-san, right? Your arrogance is as bright as the sun as always, but do not worry, with my next book I'll take you down, and you will see that porn is better than horror!" The Toad sage said, pointing his finger at the man, who raised an eyebrow, before dismissing the issue with a hand wave.

"I can't understand why people see you as a sage, you should be a pervert sage, a Ero-sennin," as the man spat that out, Jiraiya's face darkened as his stare narrowed down, trying to gauge the man's strength. He was talking to him like that, so either his arrogance was making him blind, a bad thing, if this was the man chosen to track down his ex-student, or his words weren't empty boasts.

"So are you here only to belittle me, or is there something you want? Like an autograph for example," as Jiraiya said that, Toruna simply moved in front of the sage, whispering at him, his gaze cold and steeled.

"I wish to fight you," he muttered, "I was taught by the great white snake himself, Hakuja Sannin, and right now, I wish to prove my strength against another, so called, *sannin*," he added.

Jiraiya's eyes opened in surprise, before narrowing once more, as he muttered.

"Strange thing to ask, but not today, after all, today I've got a birthday party to attend," the Hermit replied, before slowly moving away from the man, the man who smelled of snakes and blood.

"I'll come around too, I've a party to destroy after all," Toruna replied, turning around and raising his right hand just in time to block the incoming attack of Jiraiya.

"Don't, you, dare." The Toad Sage muttered, clenching his teeth.

"Oh…I will dare," Toruna replied, his face moving closer to that of Jiraiya, through his neck extending, until his face was inches away from that of the sage, "and then I will find your ex-student, and have him tell me what happened to the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, oh that I will," as his neck returned into position, he let go of the Toad sage's hand, who opened and closed it for a while, as the same thing did Toruna, the old man's punch wasn't bad, at all, and it packed strength.

"Then I'll make sure to trash you well before hand, Hill of Storms, five minutes from now," Jiraiya muttered, turning to Shunshin away, probably towards the Hill of Storms.

Toruna instead, smiled as he began walking towards the Hill in question, how many things one can do in five minutes? A lot, if you know the right jutsus.

*Showdown*

Jiraiya had been waiting on the hill for a while: lightning rods were all around them, as a small storm was already brewing, ready to take another shot at tearing down the mountain with its thunderbolts. It was a really suicidal place to have a battle, and for that, it was perfect to teach the man a lesson. He was sure that, right now, Tsunade was probably winning something at the lottery, as she always did that whenever he did something suicidal, and for once he was glad his ex-teammate wasn't in Kumo, she couldn't come, after all Danzo didn't let her leave Konoha at all, in the past three years.

That was when Jiraiya tensed, seeing the man, Toruna, arrive, his aura around him was different, as his feet seemed to tread lightly on the ground, leaving little to no traces behind.

"I'm going all out, Ero-sennin," that made the toad sage twitch, "so I'm without weights, what about you?" at the mention of weights, Jiraiya's gaze narrowed, it had to be just a coincidence, after all.

"Toruna-san, you can always apologize, you may value yourself a strong shinobi, but you have little hopes to fight and defeat me," as the hermit said that, Toruna simply chuckled.

"Scared? My, then it's true, the toads always fear the snakes! I'm sure you cower like that in front of Orochimaru too, isn't that right?"

"Ishiken"

A stone sword appeared into Jiraiya's hand, directly from mount Myoboku, and as the sage pointed its tip towards the man in front of him, he growled.

"Just one hit of this, and you'll start being tainted by nature energies of the toad, *sage*, I'm sure you know how poisonous those are for the likes of you…if you are really a sage." With that, Jiraiya, with a speed unlike what his age could have suggested, closed the distance between the two in an instant, letting his sword do the talking, as it hit, without leaving the man's time to dodge, and it cleaved straight through the self-called sage of snakes, tearing him in half. The man dispersed in a cloud of smoke.

_Kage Bunshins!_

Jiraiya tensed so slightly, closing his eyes for a brief second before letting his sword dart forward, to block the incoming swing downwards from Toruna, who had a wind charged Katana in his hands.

Sparks flew when metal charged with wind chakra met stone, as Toruna forced Jiraiya to push on the ground swinging the stone sword in a wide swipe, so as to throw backwards the enemy.

Toruna back flipped, before landing on the ground and charging once more, as both of his hands were ready to do a probable upper-cleaving motion, the tip of his blade touching and letting sparks come from the ground, while Jiraiya, facing the man, yelled.

"Katon: Endan!" the enemy's sword impacted against the fire stream, and as the man puffed once more out of existence, leaving the Katana there, Jiraiya smirked, wind chakra against a fire jutsu? Fire jutsu wins.

"Close, but no cigar," the voice muttered from behind the sage, as the man, once more, appeared in a twirling of dust behind him, Kunai held in his right hand, making a swipe motion for the toad sage's neck.

"Hari Jizō!" Jiraiya's hair shot forward, covering the sage in less than a split second, as the kunai simply made contact with it, letting sparks fly, around, before Toruna jumped backwards quickly, but not quick enough.

"Hari Jigoku!" the hair all around him flew, as the sharp needle-like strands aimed directly at the tracker from the land of iron, and hit him, repeatedly, making even that one puff away in smoke.

"Well, who's the coward now?" Jiraiya taunted, "Fighting through clones all along…what a waste of chakra if you can't hit me once," he added.

"Mandara no jin!" snakes sprouted from the very same ground Jiraiya was on, as the toad sage gasped jumping backwards, when, in the center of the frothing and wriggling mass of snakes, who started to widen out, stood Toruna himself.

"Here I am…why don't you come and see what I can do?" as the man chuckled that, Jiraiya grinned, easy to taunt the man was.

"Doton: Yomi Numa!" as Jiraiya touched the ground in front of him, he thought about it later, actually, that he was destroying a couple millions ryo worth of infrastructure of the Raikage. Right on the moment, he just wanted to teach the man a lesson.

As the ground turned to mud, the snakes started to sink inside of it, while the man, on the other hand, seemed to walk upon it lightly.

"Interesting, chakra coated mud? It's chakra consuming to stand upon it, though," Toruna muttered, as he shrugged, giving the chance for Jiraiya to summon: he was already paying millions, a giant toad more or not wouldn't make a difference.

"Kuchiyose: Yatai Kuzushi no Jutsu!" as the previously called giant toad appeared, straight in the middle of the sky, and falling down quickly, Toruna grinned, before biting his own thumb in the time he had before getting crushed to death.

"Kuchiyose: Scaly-chan' Headbutting special!" at those words, Jiraiya paled. He paled because the man had called from the snake summoning scroll of Naruto, and that was impossible, unless Kuro had gone senile, allowing such a rude individual to take upon the contract, or unless he had lied to the giant snake, or if he had defeated the giant snake or…or if he actually was Naruto. The next moment, a snake whose head was covered and encrusted in hard rocks sprouted forward from the ground, hitting straight on the soft belly of the toad and making it disperse in a cloud of smoke, before dispersing herself.

"How did you do that!" Jiraiya yelled at the man, who grinned back at the Toad Sage.

"You are not taking me seriously, you old pervert! Go all out!" and with that, the snake sage grinned raising both of his hands forward.

"Sen'ei Tajashu!", he had barely finished, that thousands upon thousands of snakes sprouted from his arms, dashing forward fangs open, some with kunais, other with Ninjatos, all out for the toad's blood.

"Ranjishigami no Jutsu!" Jiraiya's hair swiftly became a frothing and filled with teeth mouth, which dashed forward to intercept the snakes, while the Sannin himself didn't stop from letting his hands do the necessary hand symbols for another jutsu, using his hair now hardened as steel as the conductor.

"Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu!" as fire spew forward from his mouth, running along the hair, it hit dead on against the mass of snakes, causing an explosion, as snakes and hair flew everywhere around the two fighters.

This however proved a good enough distraction for Toruna to jump out of the range of the swamp, and to dodge sideways, as what seemed like a second Jiraiya appeared behind him, slashing the ground where a split second before Toruna was.

"Two can play with Kage Bunshins!" as the Kage Bunshin of the toad sage took to fighting with Kenjutsu Toruna, the real one bit his thumb, to summon two friends.

"Fukasaku-san, Shima-san, I need Sennin modo," Jiraiya whispered swiftly, as he saw Toruna fighting back his kage Bunshin with the use of kunais and shurikens, a feat he wouldn't actually believe possible, if the man's speed wasn't making it extremely difficult to deflect them, while using the stone sword.

"That man's giving you problem, Jiraiya-san? Haven't you realized it yet?" Fukasaku muttered, as he and Shima jumped on the man's shoulder, starting to gather nature chakra.

"What?" The Toad sage was perplexed, at least…until he finally entered Senjutsu mode.

That's when he saw it. He saw the twirling green aura of nature chakra in the man's aura. He wasn't lying about being a sage…the point was…

"Kami be graced…he's in Sannin mode since the beginning!" Jiraiya practically yelled that out, as his Kage Bunshin, hearing that, distracted himself for a second, long enough for Toruna to let a kunai with an explosive note attached slip through unnoticed in his volley, exploding to let the Toad Sage's Bunshin disperse.

"Took you long enough to realize it, pervert!" Toruna replied smirking, "Here I was thinking my cheeks would give me away, what are you an idiot?" he added, taunting the man to come closer.

"But that would mean…" Jiraiya himself, when transforming, took on a different appearance, and even for him, and his chakra control, he couldn't hold the sennin transformation always, but this man? How could this man have a better grasp at control than him? How… "YOU weren't lying! You trained with Hakuja himself!"

"Ha! You thought I was lying, damn, now I have to make you pay for that!" with those words, Toruna grinned as he jumped high onto the air, "be prepared for being sliced up!"

"He's going for a wind chakra jutsu!" Jiraiya muttered.

"Let's reduce him to cinders!" Shima replied.

"I'm fine with Ma's idea," Fukasaku added.

"Senpō: Goemon!" the devastating amount of oil poured out from Jiraiya's mouth was propelled upwards by Fukasaku's usage of a wind release, and was then, ignited with the use of Shima's fire release, all to generate an immense and overbearingly hot fiery inferno, that burst forward, completely engulfing the man.

Even the clouds, due to the sudden heat, dispersed, having evaporated once more into a more gaseous form, letting the sun rise upon the half-destroyed Hill of Storms.

Jiraiya took a deep breath, did he win? Wait, wasn't this supposed to be a fight *not* to the death? Well, he had challenged him, that much was sure, and he now had to pay for the damages, as…

"Close again, but no cigar," as the voice spoke once more, from behind Jiraiya, the Toad Sage tensed.

"How did you do that? You were in mid-air, you were engulfed, I hit till the clouds!"

"Kuchiyose: Sanjū Rashōmon, it deadened the explosion. You are still strong for your age though…Why did you go with swords and not with your more famous technique?" Toruna queried, "I know of the Rasengan, why haven't you used it?" at that question Jiraiya gritted his teeth.

"My ex-student invented that technique, and he fell to a dark path, I will not soil my hands with things that belong to him, and I refuse to be grateful to anything of his creation," at those words, Toruna chuckled.

"Even his son, you refuse to be grateful to? But you're here to bring flowers to his tomb yearly, isn't it?" Jiraiya turned around, staring into the man who seemed covered in a good dose of sooth, after all, he couldn't emerge completely unscathed from the confrontation, both were panting slightly, both sages, and for a split second, the Toad sage felt the fitting need to call the man a Sannin, but he'd die biting his tongue off rather than actually calling him that.

"You did your homework for your prey, Toruna-san…but I have to ask you…are you willing to split the bill?" as Jiraiya queried that with a chuckle, pointing at the incoming furious Raikage, Toruna rolled his eyes over, as Fukasaku and Shima dispersed, letting Jiraiya breath more easily, as the nature chakra dispersed.

"I'd say it was a draw, so it's fifty-fifty," the Toad sage pointed out.

"All the destruction came from *your* jutsus, you damn pervert sage! You Ero-sennin!" for a split second, the man's voice turned kind of childish, before resuming its normal seriousness.

"And I've already left, Kawarimi'd myself with a Kage Bunshin, so you deal with the Raikage alone," with those final words, the covered in sooth Toruna dispersed in smoke and leaving a paling Jiraiya to explain to a just arrived Raikage what had happened.

*Anko*

She hadn't gone out, that day. She was sitting, in front of her television, watching the matches of Naruto, first against that Saya Ichigawa girl, so much for her being lady-like, fighting with a Kimono took guts, but then against the Neji Hyuga, and finally, against the recently made Kazekage, Gaara. She saw him getting enclosed in sand, she understood by now that it was no longer him, and then, after the first three minutes, she stopped the cassette once more. There he was, in the background, as the reporter was registering everything around her, but seemed to lack the enormous and gigantic black flying snake on the background, with her Otouto on it, her Otouto…so happy to be set free, to have all his problems solved, so happy and now so dead…she looked at the empty scroll in front of her. What was she going to write to that bastard? How much the boy she saw like her own little brother had changed her life? How much she had been happy to hug him? To hear his voice when she came back from work, to hear someone happy to see her, for once, instead of the whining of a prisoner to be tortured? How much the boy was polite? How much he made her feel happy, since he never gave up? How much it had hurt to be separated from him? How he had shown his courage by fighting off Orochimaru, her own dark past? Orochimaru was still alive, somewhere, and her Otouto was dead. How dared he? It had taken an arrogant fool from the land of Iron to realize it. She couldn't keep on crying on herself, she had other things to do: first, beat the hell out of the tracker, then find Orochimaru, butcher him and make him scream, and finally putting a stone on her past, and spend the rest of her time working and getting dead drunk.

She turned off the television, putting the cassette back in its place, before turning around to leave, after freshening up in the bathroom. She looked like a mess, a mess who had cried for hours the night before, and there was no way she was going to let her Otouto see her like that, not today. After all, it was his birthday.

She heard a light groaning coming from the dining room, and as she turned to look, she realized even Yugito had slept *over*, probably consoling her as she was holding her *crying* cushion too.

"That's what a Cat gets for drinking too much milk, with biscuits," Anko muttered back, as she slowly helped her friend up.

"Sh…Shut up and let me…let me handle him…if he…touches you I'll snap him like a twig," Yugito muttered, half-asleep and half-suffering from a terrible headache, Anko *had* spiked her milk with sake, after all. Nobody gets sad without getting drunk a bit…at least that was the purple-haired woman's idea of how being sad worked.

When the two exited the apartment, their faces covered with dark shades to make sure nobody saw how red their eyes were, they didn't go far.

"So, a birthday for a dead brat," the voice already made both of the woman grit their teeth, was he having fun about this? He seemed to be enjoying torturing them both, why else would he be going around like that? "Then what, funerals for the living?" he added, before he mentally realized just how ironic that statement was.

The two women turned around for a brief second, eying Toruna, who stared at them with a bored look, his mantle gently flowing because of a light breeze, his hood taken down.

"Aren't you…" Yugito didn't finish the sentence, because Anko grinned, next to her, before exclaiming, jovially.

"Oh my master! Do you wish for some spunky, steamy, morning goodness with this Anko-chan? Do you want me to wash your back?" as she teased, getting in front of the man, she even made a smile, before adding up.

"You're a bastard, and a son of a bitch, and I'll make your life hell, mark my words! So, you can stuff your *report* on MY brother up your stuck-up arrogant ass, and that's final! Bye bye!" and with that, Anko turned around, clicking her heels together, before dashing off in a chuckle holding Yugito's hand, who was utterly shocked by the woman's words.

*Toruna*

_See…I knew it would work. Good luck with your life now, Anko-Oneechan._

As Toruna slowly let his hood come back to hide his facial features, he began walking around Kumo, his feet taking him just so casually to where the park was, and to where, strangely, a group of three shinobis were plucking out the weeds and preparing tables and chairs for what seemed like a festival.

He recognized the three: Mogura was a hulk, moving tables and chairs, and even the trees if they got in the way, planting them elsewhere. The quiet girl that was working on placing the plastic glasses and dishes was Hayari, and even then, every now and then Toruna had to concentrate to understand where she was. The third shinobi was Saya Ichigawa, who worked nimbly, while still keeping her kimono in perfect conditions. He kind of wondered where Shinkansen was, as he should have been the third member of the group.

Toruna shrugged, letting his back fall against a tree, staring at the three shinobi working, before slowing having his gaze drift towards Mogura, who had stopped dead on his tracks, sniffing the air around.

Then the mole-man turned his gaze towards Toruna, and for a split second, he thought that it wouldn't work with him, he had changed too much, but maybe there was something that would let the boy recognize him, something at all. Instead he nearly, nearly because he didn't do it, sigh in relief, when the mole boy resumed his work.

Mogura smelled blood and snakes, as he turned around, to pin-point the location, he felt the silent tremor of someone who is surprised, for a split second, but then relaxes visibly. All Mogura saw was a sort of bright and dark fuzz of colors next to a tree, maybe a person, or an object? He turned to his job, he had to finish this before lunch, after all, it was Naruto's Birthday and he had to work quickly.

Little did he know, the birthday was going to get trashed in such a horrid way that connecting Toruna with Naruto would be impossible, even for the most paranoid of shinobis and with that, all the work done till then would bear fruit.

Toruna knew that right now the Raikage was speaking with Jiraiya about his skills, he knew because he always guessed right, he knew that his attitude would make him impossible to connect to the polite gentle boy he no longer was. He knew, obviously, that he risked slipping in battle, resorting to one of his lightning jutsus, or to the Chidori, or to the Rasengan. He knew them both, he didn't use them much though, but he knew them. He wanted the toad sage to use it, so that he could try and *copy* it, but instead he had discovered something new. So much for the Toad sage saying it was *his* jutsu when he began teaching Naruto. His mind drifted to the Konoha team, would they have people who he knew of? Like Shino? Shino certainly would recognize him immediately, his bugs ate chakra, and each chakra had a *signature* that made it unique. That was why he had kept himself in the Senjutsu state, if he didn't, a skilled sensor, like C, would detect him in a moment, and he couldn't do that.

He was the one man army for a reason, and for that reason, he had an army of clones stashed in the Ryuchi cave, each of them dispersing at regular intervals. It would last for more than a month, and once out of *range* of C, who he had yet to see in Kumo, but who couldn't be that far away, he'd revert to his normal form. Once he did that, the idea that he and Naruto were different would already be implanted deep within those who worked with him and it wouldn't make them wonder why his eyes were blue or he had lightly faded whisker marks, they'd see him as Toruna, the tracker of the land of iron, the extremely rude man who always belittle his *prey*.

His plan was already formed in his mind. He'd track down Minato and the Akatsuki, query the Akatsuki for information on the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, and then, once he found it, he'd free the Kyuubi with the use of his seal mastery, would fight him, defeat him, and then re-seal it again inside of himself, then he'd go back to Kumo. No longer Toruna…but Naruto.

That was, if something didn't go wrong in the middle of it all, but then again, he'd die as Toruna, so nobody would cry for him, nobody, and no-one.

*somewhere*

Unknown to Toruna, miles away, Mifune was quietly scribbling down on his desk, in three wolves mountain, about a betrothal contract. He was sure Toruna would like to know Mifune had deemed him worthy of such esteem, to be willing to hand over the hand of his daughter to him. He was sure the man would accept, and finally prove his hidden kindness to the world.

Shaking his head, the leader of the samurais recalled the first words the man ever said to him, when they met for the first time.

"_Make me strong, and you'll have my promise that I'll never betray your orders for as long as I, Toruna of the Snakes, live."_

The way he had told that…it was like the man knew he was going to die, eventually. Well, a kind hearted girl like his daughter would certainly work wonders on the man, he heard some tales from some of the samurais, when he had first been brought back, something about him yelling for *clean underwear* in the dark and cold cave. Well, every man had its quirks.

"Still…he *is* right, clean underwear? Every man would die for them," with that, and a small chuckle, Mifune finished inking the contract.

**Author's notes**

**Sannin teaching *done* Doujutsu hasn't even been spoken of yet…what is it? I like keeping the readers in suspense…but it will come along…eventually.**

**And no, he doesn't have a wife, I thought it was clear he was lying, in this way Toruna and Naruto are even more distinctively separated, (as explained in this chapter, it's done precisely because of that, to make the division more marked).**

**His strength is slightly less than that of Jiraiya, who didn't take him seriously in the battle, and Naruto *is* in senjutsu mode, as his normal features are hidden by the transformation, plus a slightly heavy-chakra based Genjutsu on the face, to hide his slit-eyes, in this way, he uses the nature chakra and doesn't risk overloading.**

**Q&A**

**Tamult: Who knows…maybe it would be even worse.**

**Dragonrising: Kuro didn't know, and discovered it only then, since after discovering his corpse they stopped trying to reverse summon him, once he got out from Hakuja's spires he could have been reverse summoned…but everyone thought him dead.**

**Dragonskyt: I'll give them happiness, alright! I'll have Toruna die after becoming Naruto!**

**For the senjutsu's appearance:**

***The mark of a true sage is just the eyes changing* actually, I think Kabuto (while marked as having a completed sage mode) was just lying, because I mean, he had horns and a tail, a frigging tail, that's not complete sage mode!**

**While horns might or might not be cool, I deem them more on the side of an incomplete transformation. **


	22. SH: Knowing

Twenty-second

The clouds dimly and softly flew away from the public gardens of the village of Kumogakure, where the festival, done in memory of the birthday of Naruto, was going to take place. People who knew the boy had already done their rounds at his tomb, and everyone, while taking a seat on one of the many benches, started to talk to one another about trivial things. A lot didn't know the boy, but free food and drinks can convince many to speak well even of the staunchest of people. On the other hand, while even the kids were playing around, throwing balls and catching them, a sort of silent area of quiet was surrounding a specific tree, and a specific person, who seemingly was lightly snoring. His hands were on his chest, his hood on, his black and white clothes covering him, while his hands, not covered by his usual gloves, seemed to have been bitten repeatedly. Yugito was staring at the man from where she was sitting, narrowing her gaze every time she thought she had seen the man move, like a cat ready to pounce at a mouse. If he tried anything, anything to ruin her Otouto's memorial service, which always happened underneath the motif of a birthday party, she wouldn't let him. The same thing was said for Anko, who however took the time to eat Dangos, in between a murderous glare and another. The Raikage had to be calmed down by Jiraiya and by B, to avoid going to hit the man for the damages that the Toad sage, in the end, had forked the money for. Darui was the only one standing, silently, a bit away from the rest of the group, as he had decided he'd be the first one to intercept the man, if he tried anything funny. Unknown to him, even Jiraiya was slightly tensing every now and then, while he tried his suave ways with the ladies that had come to the *birthday* party, and that in truth was a memorial service. Shoko had to be brought to calm by Yugoro, because she actually wanted to go and challenge the man, while Saya had pouted the unfairness of not being able to Genjutsu him to have him see his worst nightmares, and Mogura…Mogura stood silently, sitting in a corner, shaking his head every now and then.

"So that's the man I'll have as a team leader?" a dark skinned woman, with green eyes and light grey hair spoke quietly, her gaze wandering to where the man was sleeping, seemingly peacefully.

"Yes, and, if all I've heard for today is good enough, he's a class S bastard," the Raikage replied with a grunt, as he nearly broke in half the plastic cup, "and let's not forget he's also able to make the toad sage sweat, so he's an S class bastard, and has the right to be that way, which makes him even more a bastard," the tanned man grumbled as he took a gulp at the ramen, the food of the occasion.

"Raikage-sama!" A guard called from the side of the clearing, coming hurriedly towards A, the man, sweating and panting, barely caught his breath before yelling, "There are flying objects coming this way! The border patrols are unresponsive!"

The Raikage's face paled, before turning to a dark degree of red, angry red.

"Do they have a…" the sentence wasn't finished, as explosions ran through the city, buildings blowing up as what looked like small golden crosses flew through the skies of Kumo, spewing downwards kunais with explosive tags at an alarming rate.

"Kami, I hate you," was the small whisper from Toruna, as he slowly stood up, staring at the flying invaders. Really, now? Why couldn't they just, come another month? Today they had to come around and do their invasion thing? Today, when he had already planned to *Mandara no Jin* the party? He growled just so slightly, as he dashed forward, even more swiftly then the Raikage himself, to cover a small crying kid from a couple of Kunais, that were deflected from hitting him on the back by two giant snakes, that sprouted from his mantle. He was giving up his utter ass attitude, but he just couldn't let a boy get dismembered in front of him, he wasn't that cruel: at least, not yet.

"Get the civilians to the refuge!" The Raikage yelled, as he silently grabbed the boy from the man, and, for a split second, the face of Toruna looked like a really worried one, even *human*, before he actually opened his mouth in spite.

"If these are the Kumo's defenses then you've got a hell of a hole!" with that snap comment, Toruna turned around, dashing towards the center of the city, where some of the enemy shinobis were in the process of dropping bombs on the remaining buildings.

Jiraiya followed straight behind the snake-sage, thinking about asking him to pay for half the damages…once he got a good situation to force him to pay. At least, that was the Toad's sage intention, until a building crumbled straight in between the two, forcing Jiraiya to take a detour, and lose from sight the man in question.

"Kami be damned!" Jiraiya cursed, as he began helping in the defense of the city, using his *senbon*-like hair as an effective anti-air procedure.

"Damn!" Toruna swore, barely avoiding getting squished under a crumbling building, as he bit his thumb before yelling out loud.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu: KURO!" as an enormous cloud of smoke dispersed, feather orange and purple wings stood wide open, winds as strong as the strongest gales scattering the flying nins, who had difficulty in keeping the altitude, when the air itself bent to someone else's will. On top of Kuro's head stood Toruna, who gritting his teeth muttered.

"I am Kuro the Wind Snake, the slithering darkness of the night, the biter of the apocalypse!" as the snake hissed that, he stared at the situation before hand, thankful that Shiro-chan was currently making the rounds elsewhere, or she'd have just started another mess, probably, the girl was good and all...but she wasn't suited for fighting air to air, yet.

"Kuro, bring me upwards, let's aim straight at the heart before anyone else catches up," as he whispered that, the giant black snake mentally nodded, as he began flapping his wings, one flap good enough to already leave the earth behind.

"This brings back memory," Kuro hissed softly, "By the way: you're not the only one who's gotten stronger, look at what I learned to do!" as the snake dashed upwards, clouds began condensing straight behind his tail, darkening into a veritable storm of electricity, then, as the snake began spinning around himself, ignoring the small flies of flying enemy ninjas, whose attacks were deflected by his scales, he literally *threw* the storm against the amassed squadrons coming his way.

"And then it goes *bang*," as Kuro opened his mouth, he yelled, "Fūton: Renkūdan!" a giant air ball dashed with incredible speed straight ahead, hitting the storm and making it explode into a veritable electromagnetic blast, that dashed electrical bolts of lightning on the metallic wings of the flying enemy ninjas, electrocuting vast amounts of them, that started to fall to the ground, smoke coming from their charred and fainted bodies.

Unknown to them, the Nibi had actually managed to cling to the tip of Kuro's tail, and she was now cursing her own stupidity: when she had seen the man dash, she had thought he was up to something, that he, in truth, wasn't to be trusted, and so when he had summoned Kuro, she had barely managed to latch on, her hair standing to attention, when the storm appeared behind her, and had even yelled, as the storm had been thrown, but she was latching on, as she was determined not to let the man out of her sight.

Anko, on the other hand, was howling curses as her own snakes were throwing Ninjatos and Kunais from their mouths, as their bodies sprouted from the woman's forearms, and was in the process of cussing such strong words that Darui was trying to decide wherever it was *cool* or not, considering the kids that were being brought to the refuges.

The truly pissed of B, on the other hand…

"Nobody messes with my bro's party,

And expects to get away in one piece,

I ain't staying calm with foolhardy,

And so I'll shove you this up your … Bijūdama!" as Hachibi's transformation came complete, a giant dark sphere threw itself forward, towards the biggest amount of the *carrier* ships for the ninja tried to turn around and escape, but the blast of the sphere took them head-on, damaging them beyond the point of flight, and forcing them to crash land.

It was chaos, as some of the flying ninjas had survived, and were battling their ways through the narrow streets of Kumo, who, however, were soon filled with the *Tails* division of battle snakes, the flying Shiro-chan first in line fighting side to side with a bunch of other snakes who all wore the headband around their necks, with the kanji for *Tail* on.

"This was not cool!" Darui exclaimed, as his sword, charged with electricity, cleaved through three enemy ninjas in rapid succession, all the while the Raikage dashed through the battlefield, appearing and disappearing through pure speed, until, at a certain point, he found himself back to back with Anko.

"Let's make them pay for ruining my Otouto's birthday!" Anko screamed, as she made a wicked grin at a group of three trembling enemy ninjas, who had their legs blocked by her snakes, and who then started to yell their pain, when the woman released her jutsu.

"Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu!" fire sprouting from her lips, and charring the three whose screams pierced the surroundings, leaving little to the imagination concerning the pain they were suffering through.

"Raiton no Yoroi!" as the Raikage's entire body covered itself in electrical chakra, to stimulate his nerves, he charged straight through a group of enemies, using his Lariat move to decapitate them while being too fast for the eyes to see. It was gruesome, and extremely satisfying, at least for Anko, to see.

Up on the cloud, Toruna saw something, in the far off, something that wasn't, at all, meant to be there.

"Kuro, fly towards that strange white glint in the mountains…if my eyes and my senses aren't faulty…that's a city," he muttered.

"A city? Do city sprout like mushrooms now? No, because I was planning on building inside another mountain, but if cities can sprout…" Kuro spoke back with a joke tone, as he began flying towards the direction of the white glint, the same direction the attackers had come from. Yugito, holding tightly to Kuro's tail, couldn't help but mentally curse the man, and try to reason that Kuro was simply being polite with the utterly rude individual.

When they actually reached it, it truly appeared to be more of a fortress, than a flying city, the size of which could rival with that of a small hidden village, and who had strange carvings of faces on it, but, most importantly, it was floating on the ground, and thus didn't *sprout* but actually *flew* there.

"Hey Kuro…you said you needed another mountain?" at that rhetoric question from Toruna, Kuro hissed a grin.

"Well…finders keepers," as if on cue, Kuro quickly rolled to the side in the air, as he avoided cannon balls being shot from the city, as some enemy ninjas *had* to be on the defense, obviously, and some others were starting to fly to intercept the giant snake, "the area's a bit hot for me to land in," Kuro muttered, as he flew in a zig-zag pattern, that made Yugito wish she would be heard if she screamed hard enough, but she'd lose the element of surprise on the man, she wanted to see what he did when left alone, and to see for herself if his strength, the strength Jiraiya had spoken of, was true or not! And for being a sensor ninja, he hadn't even sensed her on the tip of Kuro's tail!

"I'll clear a path," Toruna muttered, as he raised his right hand, "Just…if they ask, it was your own doing," and then, after a brief moment, his right hand had chakra appear in a twirling motion, that soon began to turn into a spherical concentrate of chakra, that began to twirl faster and faster until it was simply a pure sphere of chakra, like the Bijudama of the Hachibi, and then, as if on cue, the man muttered…

"Sen'eijashu Sennin Rasengan!", the snakes that sprouted from his right forearm grabbed the ball of concentrated chakra and pushed it forward with their head, that seemed to twirl and increase, by themselves, the size of the ball, until spirals of chakra, green chakra, began deflecting the attacks as it kept on, unstoppable, until in the end the giant, green, spiraling rasengan hit straight through one of the walls where the heavy *air defense*was concentrated, making a crater where it exploded, throwing debris, and ninjas, away, as they strangely turned to stone, or into smaller snakes.

"It's imbued with sage chakra…whoever touches it unprepared will transform into a snake…or a rock," Toruna whispered, "now let's get closer, while I rest and await the next batch of chakra," with those words, Kuro flew into the now cleared landing zone, folding his wings as he landed, and silently, Yugito Nii prowled behind an alleyway, staying hidden while she kept her gaze on the man. He had just used a Rasengan, the technique of that damn bastard of the fourth, and of Jiraiya the toad sage. The two had fought, but the sage hadn't used his technique in the battle, at least, he hadn't retold it like that. So where did the man learn it? And from who?

What if he *was* the fourth? Or a spy of the bastard? What if he worked to keep them away from the man, instead of moving forward? She had to know…curiosity killed the cat, but she was more than a cat, she was a Jinchuuriki Cat, and she would go to the end of it.

"Kuro, disperse and go back to Kumo, they might need help with something, like cleaning the rubble, I'll handle it here," as Toruna said that, with his confidential tone that made Yugito froth and foam from her mouth, as the extremely rude ass of an Iron Land tracker was on her nerves just for breathing near her, she realized that Kuro nodded, before departing, and leaving the man there, alone, to face what seemed to be a gathering of enemy ninjas, many wielding strange mechanical contraptions that seemed like those that spit Kunais and explosive tags.

It was then, that Toruna narrowed his eyes.

Stupid idiot, he hadn't sensed her because he had been blinded by anger for what the attacking ninjas had been doing, and now, that he was looking around for what to do, he had felt the light steps, the earth's whisper to him, and had realized that Yugito Nii was following him, probably hidden on Kuro himself, as the snake's tough scale made for poor ways to feel anything, upwards, as it was the soft under belly that held the tremor signalers…probably had seen the move, and now he had to come up with an excuse the next time. What could he say: that he learned the move through theory? What a stupid, he had even asked Kuro to lie for him, to he knew it was wrong to know it, and Yugito would probably call Kuro for an explanation! Worst, he had even told the snake about *the next batch of chakra*, if he'd been called to explain that, it would turn messy…until he realized he simply could avoid answering, and let the Nibi Jinchuuriki come up with her own excuses, or answers. He'd do that, but first, he had to figure out how to defeat twenty-five and more shinobis without giving away how many techniques he knew, and not to slip…it would have been so easy with the use of a Raiton… and now he was on Futon only.

He slowly moved his hand to the sheathe of his Katana, hadn't taken much time to take it back from the hill where he had fought Jiraiya, before leaving the sannin alone to confront the Raikage, and wielding it in front of him, in a relaxed pose, he let his neck crack by moving his head to the right and to the left of his shoulders, it had been a while since he last used Kenjutsu, he just hoped Mifune's private lesson worked…and that his chakra manipulation wasn't all that rusty.

Chakra flew straight into the blade, increasing its reach and its size, until it began to deform and twist, like it was a whip. This was the chakra sabre manipulation technique, imparted to the samurais, and it was going to be funny, to see the enemy realize just who had the longer range between the two.

Toruna's eyes narrowed for a second, as the shinobi in front of him tensed, nervous, maybe, at the sight of the man whose gaze seemed to be making them shiver in fear, then, in a second, he was gone from their front, and was already behind them, leaving after images to charge at them, at least, what looked like afterimages, but then, why were they making noises?

"Mikazuki no Mai" Toruna barely whispered, as the enemy fell to unseen swings of his whip, too fast to be perceived, as his shadow clones stood to the side of the real one, and, nodding to one another, began running in different direction.

Yugito cursed her luck, now she had to follow one of them, and hope it wasn't one of the clones, but which one was the real one? Cursing Kami, she dashed straight ahead, this was still an enemy base, so why not simply go about doing her mission, as an infiltration specialist, and find the head behind it all? Then, after a nice chat and some stress release in the form of murdering the man, she'd maybe be happy enough not to slaughter the rest of the shinobis around, as they *did* destroy her Otouto's birthday party, and nobody messed with her Otouto.

Yugito took to the stairs of a rather large and imposing building that looked kind of like the headquarters of the enemy, to her at least. White marble walls, white marble floors, everything in there was of a dashing white, and it took a moment, for her to realize she had ended up into a hospital. A hospital which held no wounded, however, but did hold a medic-Nin, at least that was what she felt, as she heard small footsteps, transpiring nervousness even, coming from within. She took a careful approach to the matter, as she slowly let her nails elongate, before slowly sliding the door open, careful to take a peek inside, seeing but a boy, maybe in his fifteen years, with reddish-brown hair wrapped under a blue bandana, blue eyes, a cream colored vest and blue shorts, she was nervously waiting, a medic scalpel in hand, probably for the wounded from the battle, and he was extremely nervous, so maybe it would be his first time operating? Still, it seemed strange, for there to be only one medic in such a large hospital.

Suddenly, the boy stood up, dashing for the door, just as Yugito swiftly moved to the side, holding her breath as the boy's gaze went to the hallway that would give on the outside…the side that Yugito hadn't taken, so, in a flash, the Nibi Jinchuuriki let her clawed hand point at the boy's neck, holding him in a choke-slit throat grasp, whispering.

"If you want to live, start talking," she growled just so slightly, "I'm extremely pissed right now," she added.

"A…are you one of the invaders?" the boy muttered, paling, "Shinno-sensei will forgive you if you surrender," he added, gulping down nervously.

"Listen up brat," Yugito snapped, "you are the invaders, right here, right now, you're invading Kumo as we speak, and we repelled you all the way till here, so, before my other friends come here to smash at your *Shinno-sensei*, you'd best talk straight to me. Who are you?"

"I…I…" the boy whimpered, his legs trembling, before he spoke, "I'm Amaru, I'm an apprentice to Shinno-sensei, who's a really skilled medical ninja, and he…he said we had to provide help to Kumo who had been under attack!" she added, softly, "we had the medical bay ready for them already, and the hospital too, so…we can't be the invaders!"

"If I hadn't dodged," actually it was Kuro, but it was a trivial detail, "volleys of Kunai and cannon balls to get till here, then maybe I might have believed you, but since I had to dodge them…I know you are the invaders, so stop lying and start telling me what this place is," she snapped, the boy was getting on her nerves, how dared he keep on spewing such nonsense, when he had just ruined, together with the rest of these shinobis who had come from Kami knew where, her Otouto's memorial service?

"I don't know…" the boy pleaded, "Shinno-sensei probably can explain…I can bring you to him, please, I'm sure he'll clear up the misunderstanding," the boy did seem sincere enough, so Yugito, holding a hand on the boy's head, her nails ready at a short notice to carve deeply into his skull muttered back.

"Start walking."

*C*

He had just finished another one of those S missions. For once, he had hoped this would be the right one, everything seemed to be against him from the very beginning: bad weather, bad allies, terribly good enemies, highly skilled enemy missing-nins, little to no contact with outside sources once infiltrated, tight and serrated security and security means, rotation shifts worthy of a Daimyo's palace…yet he had managed the mission, once more. He had even made it out: he could have sworn that, if he had walked straight through the main gate, killing the man with a fire and explosive jutsu, and then leaving, he'd have had the same results in less time, however. The guards didn't seem to notice him, hiding in the shadows, or crawling above their heads, the dogs didn't sniff him out, the traps were always disabled, the patrols ran late when he slipped on moving to another hiding place, everything that could have gone wrong…simply didn't. That's when he neared the village of Kumo, and realized just why it had to be that way. He had done his best to come back for the ten of October, wouldn't miss the day once in all the years he still had to live, since taking his own personal hell-way. He had failed to protect the boy, to realize something was wrong sooner, and the boy…the boy had died for his incompetence. He had thought of teaching him some more medical Ninjutsu, but he never had the chance, they were all too happy, too naïf, thinking nothing would happen in a safe place like a daimyo's palace, with everyone nearby…but not near enough. Maybe if someone had stood guard while the boy slept, maybe if someone had thought that the boy wasn't saved yet, instead…it was at that moment, that his chakra sensorial capacity picked something, something enormous, giant, something that was brightly shining like a brightly lit furnace, but even beyond that, it looked like a green sun, and then it stopped, like it wasn't there any longer. C stopped for a moment, turning his gaze towards the source of such an intense chakra, before concentrating on the distance to his village, it wasn't that far away, and there were multiple chakra signatures, the Raikage's, Anko's, Darui's, B's in tailed beast form…why would B need to be in tailed beast form? C dashed swiftly, hoping to reach the village in time for whatever was happening.

As he neared the gates, he found out that there were craters, the result of explosions, nearly everywhere, as many buildings had been razed to the ground, and strange piles of corpses stood there, covered in mechanical contraptions of a soft golden color, as the snake-nins had been doing the rounds, patrolling to make sure they had taken out all the enemies.

C reached for the Raikage's signature, who was standing in the middle of Kumo's square, yelling orders to the Jounin to find out what had happened, and where Yugito and *the bastard from the Iron Lands* had gone, B stood in his Hachibi form, looking around for more *problems* to solve, probably.

The medic Nin raised an eyebrow, as he neared his Kage, raising a hand.

"C reporting for duty! Missions completed!" it was all the medic-nin had to say, as Darui, who was nearby, waved at him with a *Cool* as a hello, even Anko made a victory sign to him, as she stood on a pile of fallen enemy shinobi, who were still crying from pain, torturing them with sharp kicks in places no man would wish to be kicked, B-Hachibi grinned at C, before turning his gaze back to look-out.

"It was about time! We were about to eat the cake when this bastards decided to attack and ruin Naruto's birthday party, damn sons of…" the Raikage went on a swearing list, that was gracefully prolonged by Anko, who added some more insults in between.

"Where is Yugito-san! And just where did that bastard of the iron lands go!"

"Bastard of the Iron Lands?" C queried, perplexed, as Anko filled him in.

"An utter ass of a samurai: doesn't even fall for my womanly charms! He's frigid I tell you! Anyway, he's called Toruna, and it seems he's got the guts to challenge and make the old Toad Sage sweat like crazy."

"I did not sweat against him!" Jiraiya replied, arriving from a nearby ally, feigning offense, "he just does hold true to his strength, I suppose, and I saw Nii-san holding for her life on Kuro's tail, following Toruna somewhere in the mountains," the sage pointed that out, as C mused over the thought.

"Might be him then," the sensor ninja spoke quietly, "I felt an enormous spike of chakra coming from the mountain, like a burning green sun…nearly blinded me, too."

"Must be his Senjutsu mode," Jiraiya spoke slowly as he pointed that out, "he can basically keep it up for Kami knows how much time. He's a tightly packed concentrate of nature chakra, and…well, it makes a *sage* a *sage*," he added, before the Raikage shrugged at the unnecessary info.

"Anyway, B and Darui! Go and get the Cat back! C, use your skills and tell me if there are any unknown chakra signatures remaining!" as C nodded and B and Darui *took off*, the Raikage then turned to Anko, and said, "Mitarashi-san, torture some good info out of them, if you'd please," with that, the purple-haired kunoichi smiled.

"Call me Anko-chan, Raikage-sama, Mitarashi-san is too old for cheerful young me," with that, the expert in interrogation and torture hand signed to a couple of giant snakes to help her carry the still alive, but knocked out, shinobis who she could torture at leisure…she was going to enjoy doing this to those who dared interrupt her Otouto's birthday.

*Toruna*

Blue pavement tiles, shinobi guards dying all around him. It wasn't even funny how slow they were. Probably too dependent on their kunai spitting machinery to realize just how, in close quarters, they were just bulky and obtrusive, unable to defend themselves when his chakra blade sliced through both metal and user, the wind chakra tearing apart the enemy without a care in the world, like flesh and metal were but paper, the wind cut freely.

"The wind cuts, the fire burns, the lighting shocks, the water drowns and the earth rises, the yin and the yang dance in harmony, the dark and the light fight for control, the truth lies not in the sword, but in the hand," muttering a mantra that was nothing more than a basic lesson of control and of realizing one's own reach, for samurai trainee, his chakra sword became similar to a long rapier, that pierced easily through the shinobis in front of him, along the hallway, "this I stole from the Kusanagi," he muttered, as he realized just how much things he had taken from others, and had added to his own repertoire, maybe it wasn't much the fact that he was strong, but that he had variety, that, clearly, was his strong point. He was unpredictable, and he truly was enjoying the moment he was in. Blood flowing freely on the ground, on the walls around him, strange runes glowing of a faint blue hue on the floor, he felt normal, it was his duty to do this, to protect Kumo. Even though he was Toruna, protecting Kumo seemed right to him. So, when he reached what looked like a central circular area, with an old man sitting on a throne, his look of annoyance clearly written on his face, all that Toruna could do was stare at the man, for a brief moment, before querying.

"You are the most stupid man in the history of the elemental lands," Toruna muttered, as the man, actually, took on an interested face, "not only have you attacked Kumogakure, but you have done so on the tenth October. They are so pissed right now, the Raikage, the Hachibi Jinchuuriki, the Nibi Jinchuuriki, the Mitarashi Anko, the Darui, the C, and all the other people who were partying on the that day. Not only that, but you attacked me," actually, he had dashed to save a boy, the kunais were aimed at him, not at Toruna…little lie, nobody was around to verify it, "the first tracker of the Iron Lands, Toruna of the snakes, for that…you will pay with your life," as the man spoke slowly, raising his Katana straight in front of the other, elder one, the leader of the enemy grinned, before getting down from his throne, his clothes torn apart by an increase in his muscle mass, as his grey hair turned black, spiking upwards.

"Nikutai Kassei no Jutsu, with this technique, I can defeat everyone, and with the dark chakra syphoned from the city's despair, from the fear that YOU gave to my men, I've got more than enough… the runes grabbed more than enough," as the man smirked, Toruna rolled his eyes, they never learned…he had *dark chakra*? So what? He had chakra suppressing chains, and as long as…

"TORUNA-SAN!" oh Kami be damned, he already had to explain a rasengan: even the Uzumaki style chains would be too much.

Yugito entered the room, holding under her hand, which had elongated nails, a boy who was shivering, while looking at the man in front of him.

"Please Shinno-sensei…tell me it isn't true…we are here to help them from the invaders…we are not the invaders," as the boy pleaded, his eyes turning watery, the now tall and muscly man smirked, before laughing out loud.

"Amaru-chan, there's nothing to say about this: it's all true! I never liked you, and I never even considered you my student, all I ever saw you for was just another source of despair! An ever growing one!" as the man laughed, not caring about having a samurai at reach in front of him, Toruna didn't wait, to strike at the man's chest, slicing through and then dashing to the side, as the man's wound closed in a split second, while his fist broke through the floor.

As the *girl*, tomboyish but still female, due to the suffix used, began to wail and cry, Yugito was tensed between intervening and doing something for the girl, she was always weak to crying kids.

"Nii-san," Toruna spoke with a normal voice, like the same one would have meeting a friend on a street, "please take the girl and leave, I can handle myself against such a weakling," after a few moments of ducking the old man's fist, Toruna saw an opening, letting his sword pierce straight through the man's chest, and then jumping backward, leaving the Katana impaled there, as Shinno yelled.

"Darkness Wave!" the next moment, a wave of thick black miasma poured from the man's hands, aiming both at Toruna, and at Yugito, who was still there torn on what to do, she instinctively shielded the girl, and, the next moment, braced for an impact that never came, as dispersing the thick wave of miasma aimed at them was Toruna himself, wielding two small Ninjatos, two Ninjatos that seemed terribly familiar to her.

"I said to LEAVE," Toruna yelled at the woman, "If you can't follow orders: then go take a manicure course, but get the girl out of here!" Yugito gritted her teeth, grabbing Amaru and starting to run away, the wailing girl clutching to her chest, just why was she stuck with the crying children and the bastard assholes?

"Finally," Toruna rolled his eyes over, as Shinno's eyes narrowed, the man seemed to be hiding something, and that came true when from his forearm two snakes, a white and a black one, sprouted.

"Kasseiken!" Shinno closed in on the man, he had no intention to let him prepare *anything* at all, he knew danger, when he saw it, and lucky for him, the man was pushed straight against a wall, crumbling it under the stress of the attack.

"Ouch, that had to hurt," the black snake talked, as Shinno, for a split second, turned his gaze to the snake, who looked at him with a rather *annoyed* expression, before hissing again, "the boss is still alive, and he's pissed," as to confirm the fact, blue chains of chakra sprouted forward from the rubble tying themselves around Shinno, as the man felt *his* chakra being sapped away by them.

"Impossible…these are…" Shinno knew, for a fact, that the chakra chains were a bloodline related thing, but only one clan could do that, and that clan belonged to Uzu, and, furthermore, had barely one or two members at best. The man was right: he truly shouldn't have attacked Kumo. Maybe Konoha would have been better.

"It won't be enough! Hachimon!" as all of his eight gates opened up, a feat that would kill any men, normally, but that wouldn't kill him thanks to his Nikutai Kassei, through pure strength, and speed, he managed to break the chain and free himself, letting the pain wash over him, as his rage concentrated against the man in front of him.

Toruna ducked to the ground, the chains sprouting from his back creating a sturdy shield against which the man's fists and kicks impacted against. Yami and Hikari both took notice that the *Genjutsu* was working, as they had slowly slid into the background, getting into position for the boss' combined attack…now if only the man would relent for a moment from bashing against his shield.

As if on cue, Shinno stopped pounding for a brief second, the effect of opening the eight gates already failing him, as he decided for an all-out blow.

"Chō Kasseiken!" as his right hand concentrated an evil orb of dark chakra, surrounded by two rings, the man plunged it deep down against the chakra chain shield, only to find it give away easily, as the attack plunged deep within the boy's back and onto the ground below, too taken from the joy of having bested a tracker from the iron land, he didn't realize the boy had puffed out of existence, having swapped while the enemy had been concentrating on the orb technique.

"ToYaHi-combine, high furnace combustion!" Shinno barely turned around, as chains formed a sort of half sphere, but truthfully broke through the ground below, creating a perfect sphere of chains to encompass the man, while Yami on one side concentrated fire chakra towards the chains and Hikari did the same with wind chakra…while Toruna whispered.

"A little spark, and boom goes the problem," with that, from the his back, electricity flew straight through the chains, igniting the overheated air and fire chakra into a high-temperature furnace that burned through the man's entire body, letting his screams pierce high above, as the pain was overbearing, even for his regeneration technique.

Toruna breathed slowly, letting the jutsu *die* out on its own, before recalling the chakra chains and sighing, staring at the charred, and still, body of the man.

That's when the body twitched, and Toruna dashed forward swiftly, plunging deep within the man's head a Ninjato, while using another one to decapitate the man in one fell swoop, separating the two parts and then keeping up a frantic dismemberment of the body into smaller and smaller bits, covering himself in blood as he did that, his face utterly filled with a shocking fear.

"Dead, stay dead, stay the damn fucking dead!" he exclaimed, before having the entire body blow by filling it with electricity, to be extra sure it wouldn't damn regenerate any more.

Then, he sighed, taking deep hard breathes, and stood up, wobbling on his legs, while Yami and Hikari said nothing at such a display of ferocity and onslaught, simply choosing silence, as they moved closer to the man, who seemed ready to barf up his stomach.

"Get the *Scale* section to work on this place as soon as possible, I'll summon them all," Toruna muttered to Yami and Hikari, as he placed his hands on the ground, whispering.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu: Scale Division!" the next moment, a set of loud puffs echoed into the air, as what looked like smaller snakes, all with kunais embedded on their tails, except one who had a small ninjato, an eye-patch, and seemed to be smoking a cigar, stood to attention.

"Well if it isn't the boss, what can Tabako do for you?" as the snake, a rattlesnake to be precise, spoke, Toruna pointed all around him.

"Search, conquer, acquire, loot and empty, whatever we can use, I want you lot to take, got it? And send a report to Alpha and Beta, and Kumo's on our side, Hikari and Yami will be second in command, while I explore on my own," at those words, the rattlesnake nodded, before snapping at his underlings.

"You heard da boss! Recon with Hikari and Assault with Yami!" and with that the snakes slithered to stand behind the two bigger snake, who began moving towards the outside, they had an enormous city to explore and reap of its benefits, after all.

*Yugito*

The girl had been crying for a while, a thing that didn't make Yugito feel proud of, as she couldn't do much for her, in the present, as she was dashing through the flying city's rooftops, trying to get away from the few remaining defenders. It was then, that she heard screams and cries behind her, and, turning around, she saw both of Toruna's snakes and a mass of smaller one, kind of resembling the *Tail* division, attacking her pursuers, battling them with kunais embedded on their tails and one, in particular, puffing smoke as a sort of smoke screen from his cigar, before taking the chance, through the blinded men, to deliver killing blows and bites.

She stopped, as even the girl who was being hold by her had gone silence, watching with her eyes open in shock the scene. The white snake then slithered near the two, raising an eyelid, since they had no eyebrows, and hissing slowly.

"Toruna has killed the leader of these men, he is no more, and we are conquering the city," at those words, Yugito raised a puzzled eyebrow, while Aruma simply gasped in an even greater shock, Shinno was dead now, now what did she have? She had nothing, even the city was getting conquered by the man she had barely seen, what did she have now? What would she do?

"You are conquering the city?" Yugito queried, perplexed, "Shouldn't you be a neutral point? I mean, he is the tracker of the Iron Lands, he shouldn't…"

"This is a flying mean of travel, it is being requisitioned, if you do not like the term *conquered*," the white snake hissed back, "anyway, the SCALE division will conquer this flying spot, and that is final, you may bring your whining to Mifune-sama," Yugito's forehead suddenly sprouted a pulsing vein of annoyance, even his summons were bastards?

"Listen here, you…" but Yugito's words were cut short, when B and Darui suddenly landed on the rooftop, slightly breaking the roof from the impact.

"Yoh Cat! We came to find ya,

I knew you were fine but ya,

Know the bro's all worried,

You found the bastards responsible?" as B rapped that, Amaru stared, scared, at the giant black man who was rapping in such a horrible way, that she moved behind Yugito, tightening her grasp around a piece of clothing from the woman's back.

"Yes, Toruna has already killed him, this girl is Amura," Yugito spoke, pointing at the girl who was slightly shivering, "she was being used by the man, and well, turns out Toruna has a private snake army, and they're conquering the city," as she finished speaking that, both B and Darui raised an eyebrow.

"Cool, so we've got no work to do here, and not cool, cause I wanted to kill the bastard myself," Darui muttered as he shook his head before looking at a rattlesnake, that was moving closer Cigar in his mouth, and taking puffs of smoke out of it.

"Name's Tabako, all's fine Yami-san?" as the rattlesnake spoke coarsely, the white snake nodded with her head, before narrowing her gaze.

"I think you should go back to Kumogakure, we can handle the situation well, here," she replied, as somehow, in that moment, Hikari jumped atop the rooftop, hissing loudly.

"The boss is in danger!" at that exclamation, Yami rolled her eyes, before whining to the black snake.

"Damn you! Couldn't you wait till…" an enormous amount of white pearly hands emerged from the ground and from everywhere around the city, aiming specifically at the snake-summons, who dispersed one after another in smoke, to avoid being captured.

The Kumo ninja did not have such possibility, and thus began dodging them to the best of their ability, while they heard the ground crack and break underneath them, as a strange leech-like monster appeared from the ground, a mask in front of him, but all the while being battle and held constricted by blue shining chains.

It took Yugito, B and Darui a second, to realize what they were…Uzumaki chains. The first thought of the Nibi was that *the whore* was there, and she dashed straight ahead, while B followed, not daring to transform to increase his size, in case simply being touched by one of those hands brought something nasty. Darui instead grabbed Amaru by the waist, dashing to the side and then jumping downwards, to land on the side of the mountain, where the city had been going for a while, as it seemed to have lost altitude.

Amaru had gone from crying out loud to screaming out loud, as the fall was utterly shocking her nerves, but not those of the white haired dark skinned Darui, who was used to jumping down from the cliffs of Kumo, and who knew all about landing softly, even from great heights…still, he didn't stop there, as if he had, he'd probably be smashed by the city grounding itself against the side of the mountain.

"Cool down, all's fine," Darui spoke, as he finally let the girl go, once safe, and as on cue, Amaru dropped on her knees, breathing heavily from shock, fear, sadness, and many more emotions that twirled inside.

"What do I do now?" she whispered, seeing even her house for the past years destroyed in front of her eyes, "What do I do now?"

"Cool down," Darui shrugged, "start again," he added slowly, "find a new purpose," he finished.

Amaru said nothing, staring in silence, as she too was seeing the blue flickering of the chains, tying down what looked like an enormous leech.

Yugito had in the meanwhile reached the battlefield, expecting to find a red haired woman, not Toruna in the process of sprouting chains, dozens of chains, from his back, while yelling swears and curses that would have made a sailor blush in despair.

"YOU KNOW NOTHING OF ME!" The man roared as the leech seemed to be talking to him, at least, Yugito could hear a small murmur, was the man losing it? But even then…how could he use the chains?

That's when she looked at him, not with anger, but with curiosity. Even B stood next to her, as the white hands had stopped dashing around, and seemed all concentrated on attacking Toruna himself, who was defending with wide motions of his chains.

He had blond hair, red-stained, but blond. He had blue eyes, dark blue eyes, but blue never the less. He used snake techniques that were taught to him by the snake sage, Hakuja. He knew how to use the rasengan, he had no past beyond one year and a half before, he had chains that only the Uzumaki bloodline could have, and he hated Naruto. He hated the boy with all his might. He hated…himself.

"It's Naruto…" Yugito whispered, her voice creaking down as B's eyes narrowed down too. Was that really the Bro? There was no sort of happiness in him, only sorrow, his face was contorted in anger and pure blind rage, as more and more chains began sprouting from him.

"Chakra Chains Execution!" the chains twirled around, twisting into drills that carved deep within the leech's body, before sprouting from the back, passing the enemy from side to side, tearing chunk of putrid and miasmatic flesh, before surrounding completely the thing, like in a cocoon, and then, with a loud snap, twirling backwards, carving through the outer flesh and twisting the thing into pieces, in a horrid way that would have been truly painful, for a living being.

Then the chains re-entered the man's back, and as he breathed, slowly, he got on one knee on the ground, from the effort. He knew he had overused his chakra, the next batch was a while away, he had to drop the Genjutsu, but if he did, there was no guarantee…the ground shook, as the base of the city began to meet with the side of the mountain, and for once, Toruna finally realized he had given spectacle to two people he shouldn't have. If they were here, then they had seen everything, and that…that would have been difficult to explain.

He slowly got back on his feet, wobbling as the tremors from the impact happened again, enormous fissures appearing on the ground split the Kumo ninjas from Toruna, who, for the lack of better terms, was on the verge of chakra exhaustion.

_Once I could have gone forward for hours…next batch isn't coming soon…I need to remove the Genjutsu…but…_ as he turned around, hoping that they would not see him, he didn't realize that Yugito had already jumped towards his side, leaving a mouth agape B behind.

_If he's not Naruto, I'm saving a bastard. If he's Naruto…I'm killing him for his actions!_

Yugito's hand stretched forward, to grab the man's shoulder, who, however, hissed back.

"Leave me alone, I don't need your help," and with those words, spoken harshly, the man turned his back on her once more, while the side they were on started falling downwards.

"Naruto," the woman spoke clenching her teeth, "I know it's you, I saw you! Please! I don't know why you're doing this, but stop it!" her eyes turned watery, as she slowly growled, then, "If you won't, I'll have to force you to stop!"

The next moment, Yugito Nii left the place to Matatabi, who growled as she increased in size, becoming a fiery cat, who straight ahead grabbed into her mouth Toruna, albeit the man did try weakly to get away, he was too tired, to do much at the moment.

All he could do was hiss his clothes not to attack, and then let the Nibi grab him within his mouth, as he slowly closed his eyes for a quick nap…he wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon, so if he could get a couple of minutes of rest-eye, why not?

**If you're Naruto, just when did you turn into a bastard like this? **Matatabi growled, slightly, into her throat, as she held the man in her mouth, the man who she had seen and heard acting like the most arrogant person ever.

Toruna didn't reply to that question, he simply choose silence, he was sure he could come up with a reasonable explanation, just as long as he didn't drop his Genjutsu. He just had to keep it up, and everything would be fine.

**Not answering? You made everyone worried, crying over your tomb. You better have a good enough excuse for this…because you ain't getting away without one. **Matatabi growled once more, as she nimbly jumped downwards, swiftly followed by B in his Hachibi form, to land next to Darui and Amaru, who had been waiting for quite a while, while the girl simply fainted, at the sight of two Jinchuuriki in Bijuu form.

Matatabi could feel that even Yugito was nervous, a nervous wreck, to be more precise. On one side, she was hoping with all her might that Toruna and Naruto were the same person, on the other, she feared that either it wasn't true, or that, like before, someone stronger than him had forced him under seals to prevent him from speaking, and that he'd have to be kept in control and freed, in some way. She was scared that it could also *not* be Naruto, and that Toruna had in truth a reasonable explanation for everything he had done. That would mean she had just been acting on her selfish whims, of believing that a dead boy was really alive…

**I'm not going to spit you out until you answer me, *Toruna of the snakes*!**

B and Darui stared perplexed at the Nibi, who kept her flaming cat form, while keeping her mouth closed.

"What's going on?" Darui queried to B, whose face darkened slightly.

"The Cat thinks the tracker is the bro…if he is or not, explanations he has to do," the Jinchuuriki replied slowly, in wait.

It took five more minutes, before the Nibi finally spat out Toruna, who slowly got on his feet, strangely looking better than before, and shrugging off the dirt and the dust around him.

Then, it was Yugito's turn to turn to her normal form, and with that, she stared red-eyed straight at the form of the man in front of her, in wait.

"So?" Darui queried, looking at Yugito, curious for an answer as to what was going on.

"He's Naruto. He keeps refusing, but I know it's him," she whispered, "and I want to know why he keeps hiding the truth!"

"My name is Toruna, and that's final," the man replied, softly, "stop trying to live a lie," he added again before turning around to get back to Kumo, in silence.

"Answer my questions then! Why can you use the rasengan! Why can you use the Uzumaki chains? WHO ARE YOU REALLY!" Yugito yelled, but Toruna didn't turn around to answer, he simply kept his walk straight, one foot after the other, as he started descending the mountain.

"Answer me!" Yugito yelled once more in tears, falling on her knees, "WHY are you not answering me!" she slowly began to growl, slightly, her gaze set on the man's back, "if you won't answer me…I'll beat the answers out of you!" as she sprouted flames, before B or Darui could intervene to stop her, she dashed forward, her nails elongated as she prepared to claw at the back of the man.

He turned around, for a brief moment, and then opened his arms up wide, letting the woman tear up a crescent moon slash straight into his chest, letting the blood gush out like a fountain, as he bitterly smiled to the woman, who stopped, in shock, at the sight.

"Happy, now?" he hissed slowly, as the snakes on his clothes slowly wrapped themselves around the wounds, while his right hand began glowing green and started to move over the wound, closing it, but probably leaving a scar behind.

Then, in silence, he slowly got back to leaving the side of the mountain, leaving a shocked Yugito, B and Darui, who had no idea just what had happened.

*Toruna*

It hurt. It actually hurt more that he didn't have the courage to answer, than that he had been slashed by Yugito herself. It was obvious they would have found out, sooner or later, but he had hoped it would be after he had done the sealing of the Kyuubi once more. Now, with all probability, he was going to be in one hell of a trouble, with Mifune and with the Raikage. As he slowly got down from the mountain, he sighed in relief as he sensed that both the Jinchuuriki had taken a short route towards the city. It just meant he wouldn't have to confront them right then…but it also meant he'd have to come up with a reasonable explanation, as he doubted they'd stay quiet with A…

Toruna let his hand go to the back of his head, to scratch it, slowly sighing, and, at that moment, he felt a wave of fatigue wash over his all body, he slowly narrowed his eyes, as the sage chakra, and his natural resistance and immunity, battled and destroyed the poisonous vapors that someone had threw in his direction.

Who could still be alive of the enemy?

That's when C actually appeared on the road, eying the man pretty badly. Toruna's eyes narrowed, he hadn't sensed him, but, after all, C *was* one of the best sensor ninjas of Kumo, it was obvious that he knew just what to do, and maybe, maybe he was just too tired from the battles before. His muscles were sore and he needed, at the very least, a quick shut-eye.

"Toruna of the snakes?" he queried, a couple of senbon needles in his right hands, "I have questions for you," he added slowly.

"Strange way to ask," Toruna's voice croaked, as he then coughed to clear it out, "sending poisonous vapors my way isn't a polite way," he added.

"You've been all but polite, and that I found strange. I sensed your amount of chakra from the road, and after a quick chat with the Raikage, and Jiraiya the Toad Sage…you could be a spy sent to impersonate the real tracker," C added, slowly, as he slowly let his free hand slid inside his jacket, to remove small pellets, that Toruna knew were probably smoke bombs, wherever they were poisonous or not was indifferent however.

"So…I've got a lot of chakra, I'm an asshole, and you think I'm a menace. So I'm a dumb one, since I'm heading back for the village myself," Toruna muttered, as he took one step forward, only to see C swiftly, with a speed he didn't possess three years prior, lodge his senbon needles straight into the man's right foot, paralyzing it.

"That didn't hurt," Toruna muttered, perplexed, "but I can't feel my foot now," he added, as slowly, small snakes slivered down his trousers, to slowly bite and remove the senbon needles.

"You must be immune to poisons, to still be standing," C muttered back, "in any case, I want to test a theory," he slowly added, "and for that…I'll face the wrath of the iron lands if I have to!" and with those words, C dashed forward, a scalpel in one hand, as he let senbon needles fly at the man.

From Toruna's back two anacondas sprouted, their thick scales deflecting many of the needles, and dashing towards the medic-nin who, however, didn't seem fazed by it, swiftly moving in between them, touching with his free hand in specific spots, not to kill, but to paralyze, thus preventing them from dispersing, as they hadn't the chance to move. He got closer, and just as Toruna was about to move his right hand forward in an effort to block the incoming attack, C feinted to the left side, and then threw senbon needles directly at the man's face.

It was a moment, the needles pierced through his cheeks, gushing stripes upon his face, until on each side three distinctive whisker-like wounds appeared, and at that point, Toruna knew he had failed to hide his real identity, he couldn't excuse it any longer, C was far smarter and far calmer than Yugito...he wouldn't back down easily with just silence.

C simply stood still, as Toruna slowly dispelled, manually, the two anaconda summons from his back, as he dispelled the Genjutsu on his face, no longer needed, whispering to one of the snakes on his jacket, with a hiss, to tell the other clones to stop collecting sage chakra.

The small snake dispersed in a small smoke wisp, while in front of C, stood Naruto.

His eyes blue, a light shade of blue, cerulean blue, the center of the eye, normally black, seemed instead of a little red hue, but nothing more, as his blond hair stood with a far brighter color, albeit it was still red stained, his whisker marks, the real one, stood slightly misaligned with the ones C had manually created, albeit they were more faint, sort of fading out due to the age.

"What gave me out?" Toruna's words were barely whispered, his eyes sideways.

"Your chakra, even though it wasn't your signature…how many people do you think have a bright burning sun of chakra in their body? The more the Raikage spoke, the more I found it strange that someone from far away would outright hate a boy he never met, with such distaste…searching him or not, you truly hated him too much," C sighed, shaking his head, "I can even come to understand why you did it, with all the screwed heads there are in Kumo," saying that with a small smirk, he added, "you thought that, as Naruto, you'd only bring around suffering, right? Whatever happened must have shocked you so badly, you thought you deserved the pain and the sorrow, I know what you tried to do, trying to snap people out of their sorrow, I realized it, albeit the others didn't, clearly. You created another persona, *Toruna* to survive the grief and the sadness, because deep down, you know you were wrong about what you were doing. You knew," Toruna's eyes bulged in shock, "that it was wrong to lie and to feign your death, but you thought it was the right thing to do, because it was all your fault, right? You always gave the fault to yourself, for anything that happened…I blame the lingering brainwashing, but even then…Naruto…let's go back to Kumo," C added, softly, "everyone will forgive you, I'm sure. You did what you thought was right, at the time, and you can't have them live in pain any longer…please."

"C-san…" Naruto's hand went once more to scratch the back of his head, "I'm still going to die: you know that?" at those words, C's eyes darted to look at the man, he seemed pretty much normal, sure, he was twenty-five when he was meant to be no more than fifteen, but…

"I made a promise with the Kyuubi, C-san, she and I have a deal," at those words, C's eyes narrowed.

"You know you can *not* follow the deals, Naruto, you are no longer in Root," he added, hopeful, "You can go on without following through your words, especially if it concerns a demon," he pointed out.

"C-san, she was there for me, always, maybe she was crude, angry, hateful, scornful, but she was there," Naruto replied, "she was there and she was chained, she still *is* chained like I was once. I have to free her, C-san, and if I will not be able to battle her into seeing her wrong doings, then I'll have to reseal her once more, and that time around…I'll seal her inside of me, and, depending on the circumstances, I might just die together with her," he slowly added.

"But N…" C tried to interject, but Naruto raised a hand, in dismissal, before gazing in the eyes of the medic-nin.

"C-san, I died and you and everyone else cried and are still crying even after three years, now that you know that I'm going to die once more, probably, what are you going to do? Tie me down? Shackle me so I don't go off and risk my life? I have things I have to do, C-san, as Toruna of the snakes, and for that…Naruto died...C-san: can you honestly promise me that you won't try to stop me?" as Naruto finished speaking, C's eyes darted, hiding behind them the medic-nin's thoughts on the matter, before finally settling in.

"Well, I can help you out, can't I? Just…come back, and whatever happens, I'll help you in tracking down the Kyuubi, without hindering you," as the medic nin finished speaking, Naruto's eyes, for a brief second, flickered with hope, that he understood, before he shook his head, sighing deeply.

"C-san," Naruto whispered, "you know nothing will stop me from doing what I wish to do, right?" the medic-nin nodded, once more.

"Fine then, let's go…I'm sure you'll probably be the only one to think it that way," he added, as he slowly began walking towards Kumo, the medic-nin next to him.

It was silent for a while, until C took the decision to speak once more.

"Still, I can try and make you change your ideas," at that, Naruto chuckled.

"Kuro said the same thing, thank you," and with that, they returned to the village.

*Next day*

Naruto woke up, groaning from the pain he felt in the entirety of his body, recalling what had actually happened the day before. First, he had been iron clawed twenty-seven times by his father, then, he had been subjected to three-thousand ninety-two fist bumps of various degrees, then he had been slapped to death by Yugito, no more cuddles, as it turned out men's had no need for cuddles, Anko had used some of her most painful, but non-lethal tortures, including things that had made many men dread for their own nuts, Darui had used the flat part of his sword to try some new styles on his already battered body, and the pervert sage had thrown two rasengans into his guts, not strong enough to be lethal, but they did hurt. Kuro had wisely flown back to the hill of snakes, whistling too, since he knew, but didn't want to be subjected to the Nibi's Jinchuuriki anger. All in all, that day, he felt destroyed. Completely and utterly destroyed, and, furthermore, had no idea just in whose bed he was in, as he had fainted towards the end, when they had been debating, B and A, if a double Lariat would be too much.

It took him a long moment, to actually realize he was in *his* bed, the one he had when he shared an apartment with B and Yugito and Darui and C. The point was he wasn't alone, in his bed. He had some sort of baggy orange pajama on, and he actually had to query *who* in his right state of mind would buy such a thing, before turning his head slowly to the right side, where, grabbing tightly to his right arm, like he would dash away, stood a pretty much asleep Anko, it would have been a cute scene, hadn't she been in the process of biting his right arm repeatedly, while drooling about *giant dangos*. His left arm was instead being repeatedly scratched by Yugito, who, still asleep, was meowing in her sleep, sometimes purring. For a normal male, it would have been heaven, for him, it was hell, as he knew perfectly well just how his Oneechans tended to sleep.

He groaned again, slightly slithering downwards, under the bed sheets, only to find that Anko's hold was as tight as that of a snake, and that Yugito, sensing, while still asleep, that she was losing her *scratching post* had gripped onto it with her teeth.

He slowly got back upwards, sighing as he withstood the bites, scratches, and knee hits from the two women, until, finally, Kami had mercy on him, and had Yugito yawn, before slowly opening slightly her eyelids, to stare in a half-asleep state at Naruto.

"You're not going anywhere, eheh, I caught you," she muttered, gripping him tightly, "not letting you go, no-uh," she slowly added, rolling to the side, so as to have her back to his side, while still pinning his arm under her weight.

"Oh…Anko-Oneechan wants to play this game too!" Anko exclaimed, actually being a quick-asleep/awake person, grabbing tightly onto the other arm, and making Naruto groan once more.

"This is punishment Otouto," Yugito muttered, nodding to herself.

"Yup, punishment, lots of men would pay to be in your position, you know?" Anko teased, "Can't believe you're whining," she added.

"You're my Oneechans…I don't see you as women," he slowly added, before cursing his half-asleep state, yes, why did he have to say that?

"Oh…really?" both women said at the same time, their forehead covered in nervous ticks, as they slowly turned around.

"Ehm…haven't I been punished enough?" Naruto tried, tentatively, but, as the two grinned fiercely, they both began scratching his face, biting him harshly on the shoulders, to draw blood too, keeping his arms pinned under their weights, as he tried to defend himself without avail.

"Now we're even," Anko said, after a while, slowly getting up and stretching, while Yugito did the same, but without saying those words, she still had a lot of punishment to deal out, after all.

Naruto's turn to get up of the bed was met with a fierce resistance by Anko, who grabbed him in a chokehold from behind, and muttered to his ear.

"So you actually wanted me to fight on, huh?" she hissed, "Well then I'm going to show you what your Oneechan can do: I'm going to convince you *not* to do that stupidly suicidal thing, and with that, the case is closed, and Anko-Oneechan gets her Otouto back," as she finished whispering that, she ruffled his hair, before moving out with a bright smile and humming happily.

Yugito stared at the scene, before crossing her arms and staring at Naruto, angrily, while the man simply gave back an awkward smile and a sad gaze.

"Puppy eyes no longer work, Otouto," Yugito muttered, looking to the side, "you're going to have to do better than that!"

Naruto simply stood up, hissing slowly as snakes slithered their way upon his body, discarding the pajama with one fell swoop as they transformed into his normal clothing, his normal white and black clothing, and Yugito, actually, blushed on her face turning to the side, a thing that Naruto didn't miss.

"Oneechan?" he queried, raising an eyebrow.

"What is it, Baka Otouto?" she replied back.

"You're red on your face…you have a fever?" he queried again, moving closer with a teasing grin, as he placed his forehead against hers.

"N-No I don't you BAKA!" with that, Yugito jumped backward, as Naruto chuckled at such a display from his Oneechan.

"Well, you're all flustered Oneechan," with a teasing tone, Naruto moved towards the kitchen, where B, who couldn't hold a grudge even if it were held on him with super glue, already was smiling with his fist up, and, when Naruto bro-fisted him back, small air waves appeared, as it had been given with strength.

_I'm still going to do what I plan to do._

_Yeah bro, I heard you loud and clear! But I'm going to stick around to give you back-up!_

"By the way, A-san wants to see you, first thing in the morning, he was utterly pissed yesterday, but today he was actually smiling with all his teeth," Darui pointed that out, from the couch he was sitting on, watching the television, as it wasn't *cool* to keep a grudge. Anko on the other hand was happily rummaging through the fridge, grabbing a stick of frozen dangos.

"Then I'll be off immediately," as Naruto turned to leave, he heard a high pierced war cry coming from the door, that was soon unhinged by an utterly battle-ready Shoko.

"You're ALIVE! Good! Now I can KILL YOU WITH MY OWN HANDS!" as Shoko charged forward, fist at the ready, Naruto sidestepped, letting his right hand fall down vertically, as his left hand moved towards Shoko's forward leg, grabbing it by the ankle and pulling it upwards, actually making the girl spin and fall on her back, by the sheer strength of the pull, and then waving at her from his position, before moving to leave.

Shoko got up with another war cry, jumping back on her feet from her back, turning around just to…see him gone.

"Where did he go!" she yelled.

"Raikage's office," Anko replied with a grin, "You're paying for the door, you got that?" as she added that, C slowly came out of his room, yawning and scratching his head.

"Good morning Shoko, Anko, B, Darui, and Yugito who's red and embarrassed in the corridor," as the medic-Nin pointed that out, aiming for his cereals, he saw the Nibi dash in the kitchen, before muttering, slowly.

"I was not embarrassed!"

"Oh…you saw him get changed, didn't you?" Anko teased, "I felt his muscles last night, the Otouto has grown…but he's my ticket out of hag-hood, not yours!" as the purple haired woman pointed that out, Yugito got red once more.

"Listen well you! Just because he's got the body of a man…and what a man…he's fourteen, fifteen at most! He's too young!" As Yugito hastily backed that statement, Shoko turned from one woman to the other, before scratching her head.

"But Yugoro said it is fine from…I'm KILLING THAT MAN TOO!" and with that, *Son Goku* dashed off. Leaving two slightly blushed, but chuckling women, and both B and Darui trying their best not to laugh, while C, simply, with an analytical point of view, mulled over a thought by saying it out loud.

"If he got married, he'd vow on an altar never to abandon his wife…it could work to stop him from doing what he wants to do," and at that, both Yugito and Anko…turned crimson red, while Darui simply snorted and B actually erased the thought after a moment.

*The Raikage's office*

Samui eyed Naruto with a slightly angry gaze, before rolling her eyes and letting him in after a couple of minutes, she couldn't keep an angry stare at the man, he had such a different face, calmer, and kinder, that it was nearly difficult to associate him to Toruna of the snakes. She knew that in truth he was Naruto, a fact that only few people had come to know. Toruna had come back with C and had promised to explain, in a private place, everything. Then after a good four hours, they had all assisted at the punishments, and the yells had reverberated throughout Kumo, making many worried something was going on, like another assault.

Naruto entered the office expecting to be iron clawed, again. Instead, he found himself being thrown a white flak vest, the symbol of Jounins of Kumogakure. A stood with his arms crossed, leaning backwards using the desk as a support, as he stared at the man who had entered his office with a smile.

"You did the most idiotic thing *ever* to be done, boy, and you're going to do an even more stupid one. So I'd rather you wear that on you, at least it might save your hide some more, it's reinforced with steel," as the Raikage pointed that out, Naruto's eyes widened, he had expected being forced to relent, or to explain, again, how he had ended up becoming Toruna…instead, nothing, he simply was…understood? Maybe not, but still…

"I," his voice was croaked, "I accept," he muttered, as his snakes made way to *assimilate* the flak vest, letting it tighten up against them.

"On another note, you're lacking the Kumo headband, I was sure you'd…" Naruto, at that, grinned, placing chakra on his right hand as an invisible seal lit up, making a Kumo headband appear from nothing.

"Had one made, stored it away…but now's not the time, Otou-san…I still need to be Toruna," Naruto whispered, "It's essential for everything to go fine in the tracking, you know…if it is known *who* I really am, it might bring problems on the long run, especially from *him*," at that, the Raikage gritted his teeth, before nodding.

"Fine boy, but I know that, if anyone can pull off that stunt you want to do, it's going to be you: just keep up training, and, while I'm at it, I got you the remaining member of your track team: I'm sure you met her this morning, after I told her your identity, she dashed off," at that, Naruto winced.

"Shoko?" he queried, perplexed.

"Yeah, she's a feisty one, but I thought it would be perfect, since she knows how to go around surviving basically anywhere, and will not be a weight. She's more of an ape than a girl, and more of a shinobi than a Kunoichi. Plus, you'll bring the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki back here in one piece, before attempting any *unseal* or seal you want to do, that's why I'm not sending C with you, albeit he's free, or Yugito, who's better off staying in Kumo together with B until this Akatsuki is dealt with," taking a small breath, A continued speaking, slowly, "There's a lot of place in the land of lightning where you can have a good fight without risking anyone or anything, and I'll be there too, to back you up you know," at that, Naruto's eyes shot open in surprise, as he was about to say something, A dismissed the issue with his hand, "listen up boy, I ain't letting the tale of my son fighting off and defeating the Kyuubi go around without me in there giving back-up! And think about it: the old and the then recently appointed Raikage of Kumo, defeating the Kyuubi!"

"Otou-san…" Naruto, no matter his appearance of a twenty-five year old, had his eyes watery, as he didn't know what to say, so, he simply raised his right fist, and, when the Raikage bro-fisted him back, there was nothing else to be said, "I'll make you proud," he whispered.

"I'm sure of that boy, I'm sure of that," the Raikage replied.

*Ryuchi cave*

"Scroll of resurrection technique?" Hikari muttered, staring at one of the salvaged scrolls from the destroyed flying fortress, "Yuck! That's horrible, what sort of idiotic stupid moronic imbecile would use something that has a three year time-span before needing to be re-used? Always with a new body too? That's just plain wrong…" as the snake hissed, shaking his head and throwing it in the pile of *to burn* scrolls, he grabbed another one.

"Oiroke no Jutsu…*for when you feel lonely at night, use with a shadow clone*…what…what the…" Hikari slowly looked to the right, and to the left, before silently gulping down the scroll, "this is for…private eyes only, yes," he whispered.

"Hey Hikari!" the coarse voice of the rattlesnake echoed, making the black snake nearly *jump* on the spot, as he turned around to stare at Tabako, and his cigar, coming in from the cave opening.

"Yeah Tabako?" Hikari queried, slightly nervous, "is something the problem?"

"You wouldn't believe it! Omega's gotten a bright blue snake out of the new batches, and it's always wet!"

"Whose youngling is he?" Hikari queried, curious.

"We don't know, but we know it's of the infused in sage chakra batches! We might be close to have all elements now," as Tabako said that with a grin, he took another puff of his cigar, before turning around to leave, "oh and…cough up that Oiroke Jutsu later on, I want a read too."

As Hikari blushed at the mention, his scales slowly getting redder, he coughed a bit before nodding furiously, and then turning around to the next scroll.

"Healing jutsu, again," and with that, he threw it in the *healing jutsus* pile.

Yami, on the other hand, was staring at a Scale snake and a Tail snake training together. Tail division was more for stealth and sudden attacks, while Scale was made to conquer, acquire anything of value, and then get back to Ryuchi cave with the object in question, so they were stronger and tougher, but had no real use for a quick speed…so they were pretty much balanced. It was like watching a tortoise fighting an over-reactive squirrel: balanced, but pretty much annoying.

"So…you doing anything tonight?" as the question was asked, from her to one of Naruto's shadow clone who stayed in the cave for the entirety of the month, this one called Epsilon, the man, who seemed to always wear a bandana on his head, to imitate *a certain Morino*, replied with a shrug.

"What I do every night: read Icha Icha, write my new *Torturing Tips* and hope it finally sells like my other self's books," as he pointed that out Yami rolled her eyes, before hissing back.

"Nobody likes reading about torture, why don't you write about gardening?"

"Gardening? You realize I have grown only mushrooms, in here?"

"Well…then write a mushroom book!"  
"No," Epsilon shook his head, as he pointed that out.

"Aw…those who have hands have no ideas, and those who have ideas have no hands," Yami pouted.

"Why don't you use your tail?" Epsilon queried.

"And cover it in Ink? Are you mad! You know how much water it takes to clean it afterwards? Thanks but no thanks," the white snake replied shaking her head.

Hakuja, on the other hand, chuckled on his throne, while he stared at the Shogi chessboard, thinking about his next move. The *feather duster* in front of him had placed him in a difficult situation, as his skills were a bit rusty, after centuries of having *won* because the opponents suddenly decided they had lost. Now, instead, he could feel it, the adrenaline, the tension, the risk, and he could hear the chatter of snakes everywhere in the caves, some laughing, other hissing content, others yet training in ways he hadn't thought of, and, all in all, all he could think of was how interesting his life now was.

"I'll move the king here," as soon as Hakuja did the move, it was Kuro's turn to think, before slowly moving his knight into position.

"Hum…Defeated by a feather duster? I'm getting old for my position," as he muttered that, he was already expecting to be attacked by over a hundred of weaker snakes, just to *try* and take it from him. Instead nobody moved, nobody attacked, and Hakuja felt…surprisingly good, actually. He'd hate to clean the blood stains from his scales, always hard work.

"Another one? Might be your lucky one the next one," Kuro suggested, politely, "though you should avoid playing that recklessly in the beginning…try a calmer approach, it works," he added, quietly.

"I'll try that," Hakuja replied, with a nod, as with a puff of smoke, the Shogi pieces turned back to their starting positions, and then, they began anew.

*Minato and Nagato*

"Sealed!" The ex-fourth Hokage had barely said those words, that the giant wooden statue began falling deep in the ground while, next to him, the Human path stood in wait, as the body of the three tailed beast stood in the cave, slowly fading into nothingness.

"With the capture of the three tailed beast we should now turn our attention to that of the eight tailed beast," the Human path spoke slowly, carrying the voice like an echo.

"Actually, leader," the flicker of a shadow on one of the statue still visible fingers appeared for a second, showing an ethereal Kakuzu, "that idiot of Hidan couldn't catch the two tailed Nibi, and now we're stalking the outside of Kuro: we can't get in as they've got some sort of…Iron land messenger, and if we *do* attack him, whoever he is, we risk the iron land against us," as the man spoke, Minato mulled the thought.

"I could do it, without the robes, I'm just a missing-nin after all, an extremely powerful missing Nin," he added.

"No," the Human path replied, "Kakuzu, Hidan, you will ambush the Nibi at first moment, till then, try and find out why he's there and what he's doing," he slowly raised his right hand's index, admonishing.

"If you fail to capture the Nibi, do not expect to be let go that easily," before the fingers finally disappeared underneath the ground.

"So, what do we do now?" Minato queried to the Human path, who replied with an always un-emotional face.

"We go back home…obviously," and with that, the ex-fourth Hokage Hiraishin'd him and one of Nagato's bodies back to a safe place, a couple of days of walk from Amegakure.

"I can't wait to see Kushina!" Minato exclaimed, as he began moving, followed by his colleague.

"The Naraka path has found something interesting," the Human path said, stopping suddenly in the middle of the road, "it concerns Katsumi-chan…or Sumire-chan," it added, and, at that, the fourth stopped.

"What did he find out?" Minato queried, immediately concerned.

"She is on a group mission with three other ninjas from Oto, heading towards Kumo. They are on the move out of Otogakure, and headed towards Kumogakure through land, they are on a retrieval mission of sorts," the Human path spoke.

"Can he intercept them?" Minato queried, as he mentally noted where he could Hiraishin to do the same.

"He can reach them by the time they are in the land of Hot Springs, you do not intend on going there immediately, right?" the Human path queried.

"I can't?" Minato queried, slightly raising an eyebrow.

"I did not say that," the human path replied, "but I suspect my cousin would like to see us both," he added, slowly.

"Right, I've got time to intercept them, after all I have a seal placed in our base there," Minato mused to himself, before starting to walk again. Soon their family would be complete once more…and nobody was going to mess with it, since the only problem…was gone: dead and deceased.

*Konoha-somewhere*

A woman stood perched on a rooftop, her purple hair tied in a ponytail, an anbu mask on her face, as she slowly eyed the population moving by, she was silent. She was sure her prey was coming this way after all, Danzo-sama had been clear. She just had to kill the woman, and everything would be fine: the woman had feigned being her mother during all that time in training, in truth, she had been replaced with an enemy spy, Danzo-sama had told her that. Danzo-sama had no need to tell her lies, and even Tree had no need to. So, she waited, silently, until she heard underneath her feet the woman going back to her apartment, checking her own traps, as any Root trainer would, preparing dinner too. She stood there, waiting, until she heard her head for the shower, enter it, and the exit it a few minutes afterwards, and then head to the window, to open it for some fresh air. The Ninjato pierced straight through her head when she did so, the masked woman having jumped down and with precision having pierced her straight through the forehead, before letting gravity do its course in bringing her downwards. It had been flawless, she hadn't felt a thing. Her face looked so much like that of her *mother* trainer, but it wasn't her, so she had killed her with grace and elegance.

She was the perfect weapon after all: she was Konoha's perfect weapon.

**Author's notes**

**The land of the Sky crashed the party. **

***If it rains it downpours***

**General questions answered:**

**Sannin, sennin, it's like *maito gai* becoming *mighty guy* in English…let's go with the *the author probably meant that…let's keep it to that* thing, at least, it's just a vocal!**

**Toruna had just planned on doing some really yuck stuff, like having snakes eat live rats in front of the all happy partying peoples around…until he realized just how many people were actually sending murderous glares his way.**

**That said, Mifune's daughter is Shizuka. (Land of…can't recall it right now as I'm answering some questions and saying some stuff, nadeshiko village?)**

**Bit of Au, but just imagine her beating the crap out of everyone in samurai armor.**

**Still no sign of Dojutsu, a bit of inflamed iris, but that's normal when you sleep little, right?**


	23. SH: Confronting

Twentythird chapter

Naruto stood silent, his legs crossed, in front of a waterfall. The trees filtered, in the small natural lake, just the correct amount of light to make it look like the perfect spot for a break, while keeping out the hotter rays of the early afternoon. Truth been told, Naruto wasn't alone, as behind him, both Yugito and B stood silent, watching as the man in front of them fought, once more, the waterfall of Truth.

The first time, he had barely been seven years old, and when he had come out, he hadn't spoken for three days, before finally gathering enough courage to explain what his *true* self, had told him. He was a monster, a heartless, cruel, shrewd monster who's only purpose in life would be to bring destruction and sadness to all those around him. Now, once more, he challenged the waterfall of truth, and this time, the waterfall was actually bubbling. It didn't bubble when B came there to train with the Hachibi, nor when Yugito did her training with the Nibi, but right there, right then, it bubbled and it quirked and it twisted like it was in the process of fighting off something, something even her found hard to fight against.

Truth be told, Naruto wasn't having a nice time, at all.

His other self, his true self, stood there, his eyes pitch black, staring at him with an angry and twisted face, that didn't even seem his, his Root mask on the back of his raven hair, as his clothes resembled those of Konoha's Anbus. He wasn't alone, because there were others, together with him. One wore a lab coat, the symbol of Omega etched onto it, and had snakes, deformed, twisted black snakes hissing from his sleeves, another one stood tall, crackling his knuckles as the symbol of Alpha stood etched on them, another one yet was Beta, and Gamma, and Delta, each with their characteristic abilities clearly shown by the Kanji for the relative side of Jutsus etched right next to their name. Worst of all, Epsilon stood with his bandana, torture instruments in his hands, and on his shoulders stood a smaller Naruto-clone, this one looked devoid of emotions, of grief, or anger or sadness.

He was alone…against all his other's selves.

"Well then guys," the *true* him spoke with a wicked grin, "Who wants first bite on the worthless maggot in front of us?"

"I'm the last, so I should go first," Omega muttered, cracking his head, as he settled a pair of glasses on his nose, "after all, the *boss* needs to learn his place!"

Omega charged forward, both of his sleeves releasing poisonous smokes, and slithering masses of snakes, just as Naruto himself dodged to the side, skipping on the water surface they were on like it was solid, only to find himself grabbed from behind by Alpha, who yelled out loud.

"Remember Lee's move? YOSH!" and with that, the first clone jumped upwards, before back flipping and going downwards, Naruto unable to escape as he crashed against the water's surface, just as Beta finished his hand signs.

"Raiton: Electromagnetic Murder!" the sparks of electricity were as thick as thunder bolts themselves, as they dashed forward without any concern for Alpha, electrocuting both him and Naruto, letting pain jolt through his body as he gritted his teeth not to cry, that was until Gamma finished his own signs.

"Demonic visage!" it was a weak Genjutsu that required little to no concentration from Naruto to dispel, and that he did even when dodging Alpha's fists, that seemed to crackle with electricity.

"Nothing is fair in love and war," Epsilon muttered, as he took the cue of Naruto's momentary distraction, in parrying one of Alpha's kicks, to pierce the man's shoulder with a scalpel, making Naruto cry.

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Toruna muttered, narrowing his eyes, as snakes emerged from his sleeves, "Mandara no Jin" the next few instants were a confused show of bites, slashes, swords, as even a Naruto-samurai charged at him, before his battered body was thrown directly out of the concentration he was in, and flung, to the surprise of B and Yugito, against the ground and a tree between them, breaking the tree as Naruto gasped, coughing out blood from his mouth, his hands on the ground, as he coughed and nearly barfed what he had eaten for breakfast.

"Naruto!" Yugito yelled, worried, as she got to his side.

"Bro!" B exclaimed at the same time, moving to his other side, and, with the help of the Nibi, they both got him back on his feet, as he breathed raggedly and hardly.

"Just what was going on?" the Nibi Jinchuuriki queried, worry in her voice, as Naruto simply used the back of his right hand to remove the blood from his lips, before speaking.

"I just…have more than one true self," as he slowly whispered that, he felt once more his knees gave way under him, before being helped to stay up by B, who had never seen the waterfall of truth leave a man battered like that.

"Bro's got to have been hit a bunch,

We should go back for lunch,

Maybe with a bit of a hunch,

Somebody could come up with some crunch," as the Hachibi Jinchuuriki suggested that, Yugito watched her Otouto slowly manage to stand by himself, before nodding weakly to B, and smiling awkwardly to Yugito.

"Well, fine, but if you can't stay up just say so and I'll give you a hand," Yugito whispered, before adding in a sort of angry tone, "stupid Otouto," and with that, they slowly began walking towards the Turtle's island port.

It had been a nice idea to spend some time, while waiting for the Konoha's ninjas to arrive, to reach the training island of Kumo that had travelled, since it was a moving fortress that went where she wanted to, till the border with the land of Hot Springs. It had taken them less than a week and a half to arrive, and after a couple of days of training, Naruto had *tackled* the falls…to miserably fail and get so weak and battered that he needed to rest, if he actually wished going to track down the Kyuubi's new Jinchuuriki.

"Otouto," Yugito spoke slowly, as they made their way through the thick vegetation of the turtle's back, "what happened in there?"

"I fought against myself…a lot of myself, actually," Naruto whispered back, "and I simply couldn't fight them all…I didn't even try and fight, actually," he slowly added, "they just…I just felt like they actually were right, I need to learn my place…wherever it is, that is…" as he whispered that, Yugito frowned, before taking a deep breath, and then slapping the man straight in the face.

Naruto's eyes bulged in shock, as he slowly let his right hand get to his *wounded* cheek, to slowly massage it.

"Why did you do that, Oneechan?" he queried, perplexed.

"Never give up, baka Otouto!" Yugito snapped back, "Though maybe if they can convince you not to fight back, then I should try and convince them to snap you out of your suicidal tendency plans," she slowly added with a thoughtful gaze, "You hear me *true selves of Naruto*! Snap him out of that idiocy!" as she grinningly yelled that, her hands in cup form in front of her mouth, talking to Naruto's chest, the man groaned, rolling his eyes over.

"This and that are different things, Oneechan!"

"Bro's got to get tougher,

He's going to train harder,

Then you'll see what we'll get going,

When the party is starting!" as B rapped that, Naruto's eyes slowly closed, as he received, mentally, the latest report from Ryuchi cave, thanks to summoning and dispelling a clone there. The fast mean of communication was something he used a lot, to make sure everything was fine, and everything was proceeding well. It turned out the blue snake that had been born a week before was truthfully a water affinity snake. The next batch would probably hold other wind, fire and water ones, as once a snake matured it then gave their affinity casually to some of their younglings. Giving chakra without form gave snakes the fire affinity, maybe it was their natural one, so to say. Giving them wind chakra granted them the wind affinity, but lightning chakra seemed incompatible with their systems, as they simply stayed normal, or mutated into a strange variant. Kuro's actual usage of storms was simply wind gathering the clouds and insulating the electricity within, until it finally threw an air ball at it, to break them out in an explosion of electricity.

As they slowly prepared to leave, through the use of the ship that had docked on one side of the gigantic turtle that in truth *was* the fortress of Kumo, Yugito slowly, but surely, managed to get B alone for a moment, as Naruto had simply started to watch, from the other side of the ship, the ocean reverberating with the lights coming from the sun's rays.

"Listen B…I was thinking…maybe we could make a quick stop in the Hidden Springs village, Naruto could use some…rest-eye?" as Yugito questioned the elder Jinchuuriki, she slowly added, in a low murmur, "You saw just how far he pushed himself to get till here in less than two weeks, he was like a machine," she muttered, "He's going to burn out before long, even if this *was* Toruna's schedule…I don't like it being my Otouto's one," she finished her sentence, as B couldn't help but smirk, before heading towards the ship's captain…Motoi.

"Yo Motoi! I was planning, since we've done here faster than I thought, what about a rest near some hot springs?" as B rhetorically asked that, Motoi had already changed course grinning.

"It would be my first time in years since I've been in one! I'm all in!" as the, now once more, friend of B replied that, Naruto, from his position, groaned. He had obviously heard everything, and knew perfectly well how he would be, later on, coerced into following…

_No matter how much they insist: I won't get in the water._

*Three days later*

Naruto sighed, as the warm water of the bath lulled his muscles to relax. Next to him, Hikari stood in a veritable display of purring, since it *was* his first time in a hot bath, and being a snake, it was like heaven. It was the only condition that had convinced Naruto to actually take a bath, which meant being devoid of weapons, and it was one which had found Hikari absolutely fine with. Yami had pouted about wanting to go too, before heading off together with Yugito, a fact that had made most of the remaining clients of the inn scatter out, and that had left the giant baths all for the Kumo shinobi, and the two snakes.

Motoi and B stood on one side of the large pool of warm water, keeping an eye on the entrance, while, in truth, they just preferred to have their back on the bamboo divided between the male and the female side of the baths, just so they could hear some splashing of water, and have perverted fantasies about it.

Slowly, Naruto closed his eyes, letting the slow rumbles of the earth shake his senses, as he heard the footsteps of the inn's guests, of the host, of the people walking lazily or yelling out in their drunk state, he slowly let the wind carry to his nose the scents of the perfumes of the geishas, the noises of the sandals against the earth, the clinking of metal upon metal, so typical of kunai pouches and shurikens. In a mere second, both B and Motoi saw Naruto, his eyes closed, transform, as natural chakra flew through his body, his whiskers slowly disappearing under black and white scales, his eyes slowly turning of a darker blue color, as for a brief second they appeared with slits, like those of snakes, before they assumed a blue color, darker, but still seemingly normal. His muscles slowly tensed, as he got out of the water, not leaving even a small ripple on the surface of the hot springs.

He hissed slowly and small snakes sprouted from the ground itself, to tie themselves to his body, bringing together with them even the flak jacket of Kumogakure, but hiding it under the mass of twirling and knitted bodies of snakes, that made Toruna of the snakes so remarkable. White and black, his hair a dirt blond and red stained, Toruna slowly brought his right index in a *silence* sound to B and Motoi, before jumping on the inn's roof, and, from there, letting his sight do the rest.

A smell of ramen, powdered cheap ramen, came to his nose, soon followed by that of disinfectant, and that of grass and lube, but all wrapped under that of snakes, and one in particular, one he recognized even after all this years, as his smell permeated even to that day in some of the caves of Ryuchi.

Orochimaru's smell came to his nostril, as the man narrowed his eyes, hissing commands to some of the small snakes imbued in his vest, as the weights were dropped immediately on the roof, crashing downwards with strong and loud thuds, and making some people scream in fear, as Toruna, unfazed, jumped forward.

Sasuke stopped, for a brief second, his eyes fixing themselves on the village in front of them, as he saw Tayuya, with the back of his eye, clean her flute with some sort of jelly-like and utterly nose-wrecking substance, to *make the sound prettier*, while Sumire, on the other hand, had prepared camp and had taken to boiling water for some ramen. She had eaten little of anything else, since their departure. Karin stood, instead, on her own, her eyes closed as she had barely begun concentrating on the chakra signatures in the village.

She yelled five seconds later, opening her eyes immediately, holding her head in pain.

"There's someone coming here! Someone's who's a pit of darkness and wrath!" She barely finished the sentence, that Sasuke had already gotten his hand on his katana, barely blocking, unsheathing it, the swing of another sword similar to his, but who, differently, seemed to have been made of better polished steel, and whose weight alone was making him wince, as the man who wielded it, eyes closed, grinned savagely, before ending the strength contest with a sharp right kick in Sasuke's stomach, sending the boy backwards, to land on the ground.

"I see four little piglets, from Oto who have come," the man sing-sung, "one's a dead man walking, the other three do I know? Let us see if I can kill them, or if they can be killed by me," as he finished Tayuya had already gone to her flute, nearing it into her mouth and readying herself to sing the first notes, that made her the first target of Toruna of the snakes.

"Those who hold no weapons, are the most dangerous of them all," as he finished speaking, he was already gone from the front, in a twirl of pure speed, as his right fist connected directly with the girl's face, Tayuya fell backwards, barely avoiding having all her teeth broken by removing the flute from her mouth, but not from having it snap in half as the man's fist proceeded to hit her on the forehead, sending her, thus, to fall on the ground, seeing everything hazy around her.

"Why are you attacking us!" Sumire yelled, her Ninjato ready in one hand, as she was staring at the man who had his eyes closed, he wore the kanji for *Sage* on his back, and his air…it was foul and murderous.

"You don't look to be a ninja from Kumo!" Sasuke snarled, "Are you the tracker from the land of iron? Why are you attacking us!"

"SUMIRE DODGE!" Karin barely yelled that, that snakes sprouted straight from underneath the girl, who instead of being skewered by the amount of fangs and kunais embedded into the snake's mouth, had substituted herself with a shadow clone, making it disperse in smoke.

"Sensor ninja are the eyes of the party," Toruna spoke next, "Have to take them out after…" Sasuke charged forward, his eyes flashing the sharingan at the man, who, on the other hand, didn't seem at all fazed about having his eyes closed, as he easily parried all the blocks from Sasuke, who, roaring, unleashed his cursed mark's second form.

As black and purplish wings that resembled hands sprouted from the boy's back, his hair growing longer and a sickening purple, the Uchiha showed an increase in speed and strength, until he finally yelled.

"Chidori Nagashi!" but just as the lightning moved against the man, it hit the metal katana, which slowly started to hum.

"Good to know you're a lightning type…just like me, makes it easier to defeat you, weakling," the man taunted him, as true to his word, Karin could see lightning chakra entering the blade itself, resulting in it becoming a veritably lightning rod, in the strict sense of the word.

"Kusanagi no Tsurugi: Chidorigatana!" Sasuke had barely the time to charge electricity also through his blade, as he knew full well what would have happened otherwise: the attacks would have stiffened or number his muscles, and, with that much electricity against him, they would have probably even charred them while working their way towards his heart.

"You seem in difficulty," Toruna had barely finished his words, that Sumire took that moment to reappear, behind the man's back, her Ninjato charged with wind chakra, hoping to slash the man through his back. When snakes with rock hard backs sprouted from the man's back and parried the blade, she summersaulted backwards, landing on the ground with her Ninjato in hand, before dashing forward once more, on one hand her Ninjato, but on the other one…

"Rasengan!" at that moment, Toruna grinned, swiftly pushing Sasuke's katana backwards just a little bit, and then throwing his own Katana sideways, where it was grabbed by another Toruna, while the first one, being hit by the rasengan, dispersed in a puff of smoke, just as Sasuke barely avoided slashing through Sumire's shoulder at the disappearance of the man in front of them.

Karin was on her knees next to Tayuya, who seemed to be in a sort of half drugged state, and, as she checked her up, she realized after just a couple of seconds what was wrong with her: she had been drugged with a powerful tranquilizer!

"Don't let him touch you! He's using poisonous…" a hand, a gloved hand, covered the red-haired girl's mouth, as a third Toruna, slowly letting his head be seen next to the sensor ninja, hissed as the girl lost consciousness.

"Never lose sight of the enemy…no matter the situation," as the Toruna with the Katana fought off both Sasuke and Sumire, the original one slowly made his move forward, making a wicked smile as in one hand, he held the rasengan, while on the other one…

"Let me show you how things are done!" He yelled, as the previous clone dispersed, a lucky hit from Sumire, never the less.

When both Sumire and Sasuke turned around, the blue-haired girl's eyes shot forward in surprise, could…could that be…

"Sumire! We need to leave! We need more back-up, do you…" but Sasuke, in his stage two form of the cursed mark, was cut short when a giant chain made of flesh erupted from Sumire's own second stage cursed mark, then another chain appeared, and another one, until her entire body took on a sickening reddish and purplish hue, her own transformation something more akin of a monster, than a human, as she stood, sort of like a brutish hulk, wrapped and covered in flesh chains, glistening and dripping sweat and blood and liquids Toruna didn't, at all, wish to understand *what* they were.

"Oniisan…is that you Oniisan?" she whispered, her voice barely seeming sane, as she slowly began panting, her breath getting ragged and faster, until it was a really fast rasping sound, her giant green eyes had turned with really small irises, and she stared at the man in front of her.

Sasuke knew better than to stay around, he knew better because, no matter how much he could Genjutsu her into stopping, he also knew that once she began fighting, truly and seriously fighting, he was better off elsewhere, so, as he flew up in the sky, he couldn't help but let a single thought come to his mind: If Toruna of the snakes was Sumire's Oniisan, then…wasn't he Naruto? Then…was he stronger than him, or just better prepared than him? Sasuke gritted his teeth, just how much stronger did his *rival* become? Toruna jumped straight behind the Uchiha, wishing to end this fight, to avenge Shiro, finally, after all these years…but something purple, squeamish, and wriggling intercepted his attack.

Toruna stared, puzzled, as both his rasengan and chidori slammed against one of the sickening flesh chains, tearing straight through it, the rasengan twisting it to the point of nearly breaking, and the chidori giving the final push but cauterizing the damage in the meantime.

Until a second one of those swiped forward, forcing him to jump in the air to avoid it, twisting his body while wielding a small Ninjato in his right hand, charged with wind chakra, ready to deliver a cutting blow to the mass of smaller flesh chains that seemed to sprout from the girl's body, emerging from sickening yellowish tumors and being more crooked and twisted with every sprouting.

"That's disgusting," Toruna muttered, as he cut a wave of flesh chains that seemed to want to pierce him thorough his stomach, before landing on his feet right in front of the fallen asleep Karin and Tayuya.

"Oniisan…Oniisan…" the mass of wriggling flesh was actually moaning his name, with desire to add to that, a fact that made Toruna cringe inside, as he slowly but surely let his Ninjato drop on the ground in front of him, while chakra chains began sprouting from his back.

"Damn this is sick," he whispered, as if, on cue, chakra chains and flesh chains met one another, fighting off a battle of depraved desire clashing against iron will and determination to succeed, one of twisted love and another of anger.

"I'll make you trust…trust…trust me Oniisan!" as the mass of flesh actually had the guts to move forward, not fast, but bringing with her the momentum from her increase in *weight*, her hands twisted in flesh chains and yellowish sickened nails, Toruna made quick hand seals, before summoning.

"Kuchiyose: Triple Rashomon Gate!" as three gates sprouted between them, three gates that *had* to be passed through, and that couldn't be *walked aside*, he turned to the two fainted girls…he could use one to track down Orochimaru, actually, but between the two, did they have the info? Or did they not? He turned his head back on the gates at the sound of a gate crashing down.

Already this soon? Was the girl that strong? Really that strong?

Another crash, this one even closer: only one gate between her and him. So, without delay, he did the only sane thing: he grabbed both women, and dashed away, or at least, tried to.

As he held Tayuya on one shoulder, and Karin on the other, the last gate was destroyed, as a small giggle, one that however sounded sickeningly deformed by evil soon became a small growl.

Sumire needed to save her Oniisan, she needed to make him trust her, and then be friends with her…yet her Oniisan was carrying both Tayuya-chan and Karin-chan. Those two had told her how they both would have loved to do dirty things with her Oniisan, and that wasn't good. What was worst was that now they were about to go and do dirty things with her Oniisan, and she couldn't let them do it, no…_No I have to stop them, Naruto-kun is mine, mine, Oniisan is only mine he has to trust me, traitors, they're traitors, nobody else but me can help Oniisan, why is he with them I'm stronger than them they're weak, Oniisan TRUST ME!_

Her chains began spinning around wildly, as a sort of enormous, spherical and black chakra rasengan formed straight in front of them, before being pushed, with unnatural force, straight against her *Oniisan* and the two traitors.

_SHI…_

"Body shedding! Slithering mode Technique!" as Toruna's mouth opened, another him sprouted forward in a dash, grabbing the two knocked out girls by their necks, not having time to waste, as he sprinted quicker than before in his new *half-snake* form.

"I hate this, ew, I hate this," he muttered under his breath as he would never, ever, get accustomed to puking himself out and slithering away without his feet. It was the fastest mean of travel, as the rasengan behind him soon dwindled down, not able to reach him, as the flesh chains seemed to have a limit of range.

Swiftly, Toruna slithered on a tree, before dropping the two girls on a branch and having another shadow clone grab them, to bring them away. He had to stay for the fight, after all.

He slowly slithered his way to the highest branches of the tree, as he felt down below just how the girl was trashing around, howling like a demon from the deepest pits of hell.

"Orochimaru did wonders on her," Toruna slowly hissed, as the wind brought him the whiff of ozone, and, thanks to that, made him dodge in time what looked like a lightning spear.

"Chidori Eisō! Chidori Senbon!" swiftly after the bigger one, smaller ones aimed at him as he jumped from tree top to tree top, albeit, *slithering* would have been a better term.

"Stay on the ground you worm, while I fly through the skies as the last of the Uchiha!" As soon as Sasuke yelled that, laughing madly, he barely dodged a chakra chain, as Toruna, smirking, dashed out seven more, all surrounding the flying Uchiha, who found himself trapped in a dome, whose origin was the back of Toruna.

"A caged bird is easy prey," Toruna whispered that slowly, as he began the hand signs, preparing to unleash his very own electric execution.

"ONIISAN!" both actually stared at one another, the Uchiha at the Toruna, and vice-versa, as the flesh chains surrounded the chakra chains dome, carrying it downwards, on the ground, and throwing both boys to crash against trees, as the monstrosity lurched forward, her filthy claws ready to dig in on Toruna's body.

"Heddo Batto!" as B in his four tail forms dashed in, the horns sprouting from his chakra cloak more than enough to throw Sumire to crash and roll on the ground, Toruna sighed in relief, as he slowly got back up, clenching his teeth as the impact on the ground had seemingly broken his left arm. Without regeneration powers, it would take a while to get it back in place…being wounded on a battlefield meant life or death, and now…now he had to suffer the pain.

"Set the bone," he hissed, as the snakes on his arm obeyed, resulting in sickening cracks as Toruna kept his mouth shut, to avoid yelling as the snakes first fixed his arm in place, and then tightly encircled it, preventing it from moving.

"Bro's alright? Saw you coming with two ladies, fast as a flash, the Nibi is keeping check with Motoi, so I came here Ahoi!" and with that, B grabbed his Ninjatos…or how he called them: Chō Biburāto Raitontō.

As he twirled and channeled electricity into them, he began imitating a buzz saw, while dashing straight forward, against the flesh chains, that seemed to have a mind of their own.

It was then that Toruna turned his gaze to Sasuke, and with that, he erroneously got distracted, because of the arm's pain, and stared him deep in his eyes, the sharingan.

It was a moment, and then, Sasuke grinned, raising his own katana.

"Now…you're mine," and with that, the Uchiha charged forward, Genjutsus assaulting the mind of Toruna, who parried something that resulted in him being slashed on the stomach, where thankfully the Kumogakure armor absorbed much of the hit, but never the less was cut through, blocked something else that resulted in him being pierce on a shoulder, and as thick slashes of blood appeared everywhere, on his body, even on his already broken arm, with every hit, his body went numb, and unresponsive, until he got on his knees, after having used the Body shedding technique once more, gasping for air, just as Sasuke readied himself to deliver one final hit with a wide smile, he was stronger than the man, he was stronger than Naruto, he was STRONGER!

*Kakashi's team*

The village's hot springs came into view, just as, on one side, trees stood falling, creaking, and rumors of battle seemingly came from far off the view.

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura queried, staring at the silver haired Jounin, "Should we intervene?"

Yakumo too would have voiced her opinion, hadn't she been taken by surprise by the dashing through of something yellow that cut their road without stopping, headed towards the battlefield.

"What was that!" She screeched, basically pointing at the empty road, as Kakashi, on the other hand, narrowed his eye.

"Something bad, really bad Yakumo-chan…let's hurry up, it might turn messy fast," with those words, Kakashi actually sprinted ahead of them, he just hoped he was wrong…but how many yellow flashes could there be?

_Just what is he doing here however? There's no way he hasn't sensed us, unless his mind is busy with something else, but then again, what could be happening?_

It was at that point, that Yakumo, being the slowest, realized that the snakes around the forest had been acting strangely. Actually, at first she didn't see them, as she was too busy following Kakashi's back, but as she dashed from one tree branch to the other, she saw green flickers of light through the canopy of the trees, and, concentrating, she realized it was snakes with headband protectors, making their way towards the battle area.

"Kakashi-sensei…" Yakumo muttered, trying to get the silver-haired ninja's attention, but failing to do so, as Kakashi, his sharingan out, was concentrated on moving forward, trying desperately to reach the battlefield, before it was too late.

"Yakumo-chan, watch out!" Sakura screeched to her side, making the Kurama girl jump downwards, barely avoiding a man dressed in simple clothing, that however were but a disguise for his shinobi self, as he had strange black piercings on his face, long orange hair, and seemed to stand tall on the branch from which she had just fallen out of.

Sakura was next to her in a moment, staring upwards at the man, who, with a monotonous voice, muttered.

"You will not go anywhere," before jumping downward, extending his hand ready to strike at the pink haired woman who, on the other hand, flung a fist on the ground, breaking it up and making the man lose his footing for the charge, as he had to jump backwards.

"Sakura, let's stop him!" as Yakumo yelled that, a Naruto wielding Katana sprouted from her back, an illusion actually, but still pretty real, and as it charged towards the man, the Human path smirked, before swiftly sidestepping to the side, to avoid the cleaving motion of the illusion, as it left a fissure on the ground.

"Interesting," was all the enemy said, before redirecting his priority towards the brown haired ninja, as it was about to reach her, however, the Naruto-samurai of giant size hollowed his lower part, actually protecting the girl in a solid steel armor, made from the Genjutsu.

That was the cue for Sakura to punch the man to the side with another chakra enhanced fist, sending him flying against a couple of trees, before breaking his impact on an oaken one.

He got up, once more, without care for his body condition and, to Sakura's realization, he actually twisted his body back in position, without a care for broken bones or…

"He has a broken spine and he can walk? That's not normal!" as she pointed that out, Naruto-Samurai transformed into a Naruto wielding a cannon.

"Then we'll have to pulverize him!" as Yakumo exclaimed that, the cannon actually shot forward illusions of cannon balls, that became reality just as they were about to hit the man, or its surroundings, breaking up trees and creating craters just like it had been a real cannon opening up fire.

The man however didn't seem fazed, as he dodged or even deflect with a mere kunai the balls, before getting closer and closer again. Just as Sakura was about to punch him once more, the man avoided her right hook, and pressed his hand, finally, against the Kunoichi's face, when a snake flipped his tail out, deflecting the man's attempt, and giving the split second Sakura needed to jump backwards.

"Tabako, the head of Scale division, is at your service!" as the rattlesnake said that, with a cigar in his mouth, he let a good puff of smoke emerge from his mouth.

"And before you start wondering, I ain't alone!" the Human path looked around, seeing just how many snakes were around him, shaking their rattle tails, while others with rock encrusted backs stood silent, waiting for the moment to pounce.

For a brief second, both Yakumo and Sakura's thoughts drifted to another snake they knew could talk…and with that, their eyes showed happiness for a moment…Yoru and Kuro couldn't be that far away then!

*Saki*

"Well done Saki, your enemy lies dead at your feet once more," the voice of Tree spoke to her, as she stared at the corpse of her so called brother. The boy had trained with her since she was nothing more than two years old, he had cared for her like a brother, and the same had happened for her mother, who had fed her and smiled to her when she had begun training, training her together with Tree and Brother. Then Danzo-sama had given her a gift, strange steam that made her grow, that made her chakra increase tenfold, and that made her even more perfect as a weapon for Konoha. There was nothing but perfection, she was the perfect weapon, who had no need for a mother, so Danzo-sama ordered her to kill the Root trainer, and who had no need for a brother, so he was to be killed too. At first Danzo-sama had told her that *mother* wasn't the real one, and after killing her, she had felt nothing, she had hated the *woman* who feigned being her *mother*, until it had turned out the truth, but she had been a spy, so she had to be killed. Her brother wasn't a spy, but she had to kill him or die by his hand. She was the perfect weapon, while he was just a worthless tool to be discarded. She felt nothing more in her heart as she had done what had been asked of her: Dispose of a worthless tool.

"I live to serve in the shadows," she whispered back, as she stood up, her wounds closing up in mere seconds, another effect of being the perfect weapon of Konoha.

**You live to be killed by one more worthy than you! **The voice snarled in her head. It always snarled, angered at her for something, never ceasing to insult her, belittle her, always muttering words filled with spite and venom at whatever she did, without even an ounce of respect, or of silence. She couldn't stop the voice, or block the voice. She couldn't speak about the voice either, as it would be a complaint, and perfect weapons have no complaints. She lived with the voice, and the voice never stopped to talk.

_I am Danzo-sama's tool._

**You are a worthless mindless pawn of idiocy and dementia.**

_To be mindless is to be blissed._

**To be mindless is to be dead! Devoid of thought you're no better than a cold lump of rock!**

_A weapon needs no thoughts._

**You need clean underwear though.**

Saki's face remained emotionless, but she did slightly twitch, mentally, at such an impossible statement. The demon was cunning and utterly enigmatic, he'd come up with strange words and sentences that held no meaning whatsoever, and yet, they seemed to strike true into the matter at hand. She did need clean underwear. She didn't need thoughts.

"Saki," the voice of Tree called to her, "you will now begin your first active mission for Konoha," at those words, the woman's eyes remained unfazed, emotionless: it didn't matter to her that it was her first.

"You are to head to Sunagakure, and keep hold of the Kazekage's actions. You will be given passports and adequate headband: you will leave in two hours, if the Kazekage will act against Konoha in any way, or if you will be given the signal, you are to engage and kill him." There was no need to say words like *understood?* or similar, she was a perfect weapon, she understood perfectly.

She nodded, slowly moving out of the room that still held the corpse of her brother, her dead brother, and moved towards her own Root cell, passing by operative Sai's one, where the boy, elder than her, but smaller than her in height, was drawing upon a book. It was a weak thing, but the boy still drew on it, to practice for his Ink jutsus. She felt she could trash him with a single move, but she didn't want to, he was still useful to Danzo-sama, so he would be left to live. She had stopped by habit in front of his room, and, obviously realizing she was there, the boy had raised his face from his drawing scroll, to wait for the question, or the words, that he thought Saki would tell him, otherwise, why waste time staying in front of his door, blocking the light from the outside?

"I have my first mission in two hours," she said, blankly, without any emotion attached to it.

Sai said nothing, as he hadn't been inserted in the phrase, for him, the girl was speaking to the wall, or the air, or somebody else.

"Sai-san," she added, slowly, "I have my first mission in two hours," she repeated, once more, without emotions betraying her tone.

Sai slowly moved his head to the side, mulling over those words, trying to understand *what* the woman wanted to tell him, actually, or what else she wanted to say but seemed unable of.

"Why are you saying that sentence, Saki?" he replied, not understanding and thus preferring to query before misinterpreting it as the first sign of the woman turning mad.

"Brother wished me luck every time I went for training," she replied, emotionless, "he said it's common for one to do that to a colleague," she added, which made Sai nod to himself, before replying, slowly.

"We are not colleagues, Saki, we are tools," with that, Sai went back to his drawings, as the purple haired woman slowly moved towards her cell. Something *was* buzzing her stomach, but she had no idea what it could be, maybe poison?

**You've lost your brother, deep down, you ache and realize it, but you know not how to act upon it, it wasn't taught to you.**

_No, I feel no emotions: I am the perfect weapon of Konoha._

**Nobody feels nothing, they can be hidden away, kept under tight lock, but they will come pouring out like a stream, everyone cries when they're little, even the mightiest of lions cries for his mommy to come and feed him. Speaking of yours…you'd like to see her?**

_I killed her, she is dead. She was worthless, and thus I had to discard her._

**My dear girl…I was speaking about your REAL mother…never realized you weren't related? The memories from my Yin chakra are fuzzy at best, but I know you were kidnapped by someone…oh yes, and your father fought hard to protect you, before getting slammed into a wall, that is…**

_You're a liar. _Still, Saki's stomach kept clenching from within for the reminder of the two hours she had before starting her mission, so that she could prepare and equip herself with Suna's normal kunoichi gear.

*Hidan and Kakuzu*

"Fuck Jashin! How long is this going to take! Jashin be damned!" as Hidan cursed to the sky, Kakuzu rolled his eyes, before staring at his teammate, and then pointing it out, once more, because he felt in a good mood, that day.

"We had the Nibi taken from us, and returned to Kumogakure, my informant told me about it leaving once more, to train somewhere unreachable for us, but right now, we now they'll come back by feet, so all we have to do is wait here, in the land of frost, until they do, and then we ambush them," as Kakuzu pointed that out, once more, Hidan slowly cursed again Jashin.

"I want more blood for Jashin-sama! Can I kill some people around here?" at those words, Kakuzu actually turned his gaze around, they were in a grassy field, with absolutely no life at all for miles, and at those words, he actually turned his gaze to Hidan once more.

"There's no-one around for miles," he pointed out.

"There's one right next to me, FOR JASHIN!" and as the immortal man obviously tried to cleave Kakuzu's head out, the other stopped his scythe and began to pummel the other man with his fists. Well, at least they wouldn't get bored.

*Naruto*

Toruna of the snakes took a sword halfway through his shoulder, before he felt himself being pulled out of the Genjutsu he was in, by the summoning *in* his side of Yami, who had merged into his right arm, and of Hikari, who had done the same in his left one.

With both snakes throwing their chakra into his system, the Genjutsu was repelled, and as sage chakra began pumping up, he realized just *who* had deflected the blade that was nearly getting into his shoulder: a flowing white mantle, with flames on the base, and proud blond hair on his head, his Konoha's headband with a line on it, as he stood in front of him, the man…THAT man.

"Don't worry mister! I, the Yellow flash, will help you against Orochimaru's fool spawn!" he hadn't recognized him. On one side he didn't know wherever to be happy, or utterly angry, but on the other one, the man was giving his back to him. Sure, he *was* wounded, and as he narrowed his gaze around, he realized that B had probably brought his own fight somewhere else, or maybe it was him who had been brought somewhere else, entirely.

Sasuke's face turned pale, as the man in front of him, without even giving him a second, disappeared in a flash, the sharingan registering the use of a technique, but being utterly unable to follow it, or repeat it, as the next moment, a twisting motion cracked his back from behind, tearing at his skin and breaking his hand-wings, as a rasengan as big and as compacted as possible drove through his back, pushing the Uchiha to spew blood from his mouth, as he crashed on the ground, his eyes showing the white as he felt life abandoning him, the last of the Uchiha.

He was the last of the Uchiha…he wasn't meant to die there. He wasn't meant to die before killing that man, he should have…he could have…he still had to…

As the three pronged Kunai of Minato Namikaze descended upon the boy's neck, he felt himself being stopped by the hand of the Human Path, who had in the meantime, reached him, all the while strangely emitting smoke from his half charred clothes.

"Itachi wants to kill him in person," as the human path hissed that, Minato nodded, before turning to the man who had slowly stood up, said man having slowly shown the Iron Land's symbol from a parchment, and in the process of panting, an arm still and limping, probably broken, to his side.

"I am Toruna of the snakes," Toruna whispered, "I thank you for saving me, the best tracker of the iron lands," he slowly added, as Minato's eyes shot open in surprise, before actually smiling at the man in front of him.

"What a coincidence! You heard him, Nagato? Maybe he can help us find Katsumi-chan!" as he said that, Toruna raised an eyebrow, before coughing up some blood, and slowly adding.

"The boy wasn't alone…his companions are somewhere in the forest…they were a red haired girl, a pink haired one, and a blue haired one, the last one was called *Sumire* I think one yelled that to her," as he said that, Minato's eyes shot forward in true happiness, before Toruna added slowly, "I think they're that way," pointing to the opposite direction of where he had last seen B heading off to.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" as the Human Path left first, Sasuke on his shoulder to avoid Toruna killing him, probably, Minato stopped just for a brief second, to query, "did we ever meet before?" he asked, curious.

"I don't think so," Toruna replied, with a small grin, "I'd remember someone as strong as you," and with that, Minato nodded, before leaving.

_Can't fight him with a broken arm, obviously, he couldn't pop out at the beginning of the battle, no, the bastard had to come NOW, when I can't defeat him!_

He looked at the direction where the Human path had come from, and, his eyes slowly closing as more chakra rolled in, he felt the moving in closer of a man he knew the heartbeat, of one he knew the scent of, of books and dog's fur, of sweat and blood, and, without batting an eyelid, Kakashi arrived in front of the man that seemed to be sleeping in the center of the forest clearing. His clothes seemed fine, but his body seemed to have been trashed around, with his arm limp and probably set in place by something, he had the Kanji for *Sage* on his back.

Kakashi didn't need much time to recognize him, his sharingan was on, after all, so he could see even through the strongest of Genjutsus, a feat he had deemed himself proud of, as he had evolved his sharingan through sheer work and training.

"…Na…"

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Sakura yelled, as she dashed into the clearing, Yakumo on her back, wounded but still breathing, "We've been attacked on the rear by a strange shinobi! He seemed undying and…we got help from talking snakes! One with a really stinky cigar," at that, a coarse voice ran through the air, as a rattlesnake jumped to get in front of Toruna.

"My cigar is aromatic! Not stinky! And is that the way to talk to your life savior, girl!" Tabako interrupted the girl's rant, before turning his gaze to the boss and grinning.

"We've got the area under control boss, was it him?"

"No," Toruna whispered back to the snake, "it was his lackey, but not him," he added, as he had first called upon them in case it had been Orochimaru, for the back-up, and well, now he was too beaten up to take care of the *other* man, who was on a different league altogether.

"Excuse me mister…" Kakashi queried, staring at the scene, "but are you perhaps…"

"I am Toruna of the snakes, tracker from the Iron Lands," Toruna replied, moving closer, faking a grin under the pain he felt in his broken arm, "If you wish I can look at the girl's wounds," as he suggested that, Sakura shook her head, gently dropping the girl on the ground of the forest, as she began healing her through her healing jutsus.

"I'm a medic-nin too, and, anyway, that snake of yours covered the area in smoke making it difficult to see! So when the man attacked, we couldn't defend ourselves," as she said that, Tabako replied with a snarky tone.

"I told you to leave! What part of *leave* was difficult to understand? But no! Boss, they had to go and yell they'd never retreat because they were Kunoichi from Konoha, so guess what? He attacked the most yelling out loud of the two," at that, Kakashi let his sharingan rest under his Konoha's headband, no need to keep wasting chakra on it, if *that* men was already gone. It could have even *not* been him, but just a trick of the light, it had been but a yellow flash.

"It doesn't matter," Toruna whispered, "if everyone is fine of ours it doesn't matter, have the retreat signaled" he added, to which Tabako nodded, before taking another puff of cigar, and flowing it into the air into a straight column of white smoke, before lighting it on fire, generating a seemingly bright column of fire, that could be seen from quite a distance.

"Well boss, I'm off too," and with that, Tabako puffed out of existence.

"Toruna-san?" Kakashi queried, as he saw the man taking a deep sigh, "there is something I'd like to…"

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei, it's me," at those words, the silver-haired jounin's heart skipped a beat, while even Sakura, who was tending to Yakumo, stopped for a moment, her eyes opening up in shock, he had been…they had been told he…

"Na…" but Toruna shook his head, replying swiftly.

"I am Toruna of the snakes until we get somewhere…more private," and with those words, slowly hushed, Kakashi nodded back, that still didn't stop him from moving closer to the man, realizing just how different he looked without a sharingan to pierce through his Genjutsu.

"I…I'd like to thank you for saving us, Toruna-san," Sakura whispered, as she got up on her feet, before smiling, tears in her eyes as she watched the man in front of her, hiss something, before smiling and nodding at the girl, who tackled him by the stomach, hugging him for a second, as Toruna, awkwardly, caressed her hair, before Sakura finally let go, and turned to grab Yakumo once more, to carry her on her back.

*Yugito and Motoi*

Yugito had stayed in the warm water for a while, reminiscing her last time she had ever, actually, been in there, and how she had hurriedly had to leave because her Otouto was in the same bath as Jiraiya, the Toad Hermit. Right now, however, she had nothing to worry about. They were there to relax, enjoy the time they had, and then…then the door crashed, Yami tensed up from her position in the warm water, and then Naruto dashed in, with two women on his shoulders.

"Oh," Yami hissed, slithering out and looking at Naruto, "what happened?"

Yugito slowly started to become redder and redder, as the man didn't even seem fazed at having the chance to peek at her, naked, in the water. He wasn't even looking at her!

"Yami-Oneechan," that made Yugito's face start to turn darker in rage, "these two are from Oto, I'm a shadow clone, real me is fighting off a group of Oto ninja, Sumire's there and so is the bastard, mobilizing the snake wasn't needed, it seems…anyway, these two have been knocked out by my gloves' drug, so they should stay down for a while, keep them in check, please? Maybe have B come along," and before Yugito could actually get mad at him, for crashing into the female's side of the baths, he dispersed in smoke.

Yami hissed turning her gaze to Yugito, with a small grin that didn't go unnoticed by the Nibi Jinchuuriki.

"Well…I'll go do what my Otouto says…keep an eye on them would you?" and with that, she slithered on the other side of the baths, where a couple of yells from the white snake had the men dash out, or the male snake, for what it mattered. Yugito got out of the water, gritting her teeth as she dressed up in a couple of minutes, before disarming both fainted girls, stripping them of their weapons or…flute? And then carrying them towards the Inn's room, after having yelled at Motoi to come give her a hand.

Now, they both stood there, looking over their two captives, bound by ropes, and ball-gagged, while waiting, the acute hearing of the Nibi Jinchuuriki catching explosions and battle noises in the far distance, sometimes, and then her long sight working in seeing tree-tops falling and chains sprouting, and clenching her fists, hoping her Otouto would be fine.

"B is with him," Motoi pointed out, "he's going to be fine," he slowly added.

"I hope so…I really hope so," Yugito replied, as she turned her gaze to the shogi chessboard, as they stood in wait, though the waiting was getting on her nerves.

Minutes passed, maybe even hours, before, finally, someone knocked at the door, and, slowly opening it, Yugito took a step backwards, as a pink-haired girl with a Konoha's headband entered, carrying another said girl, who was, however, knocked out, and saying, all the while placing the girl down.

"We've been sent here by Toruna-san, we're the two members of his tracker team sent by Konoha…we had resistance along the way, he said he's fine and needs no help," as the girl pointed that out to Yugito, the blond haired woman sighed in relief, before turning to the two fainted Oto-nins, that had piqued Sakura's curiosity.

"If they're here…" the pink haired girl whispered, "maybe Katsumi-chan is here too?"

*Killer B*

He had to give it to the monster he was fighting. First off, it was creepy, second, it seemed to come straight out of the book *Horrors to die of fear* written by Toruna, or his little bro Naruto, what was worst, was that it seemed unwilling to die, actually. B had used the lariat, the dance of his swords, he had gone as far as punching, kicking, and stomping the thing, but, not yet willing to try the full out eight tails transformation, he stared, once more, at the bloody mass of flesh that slowly got back on her feet.

It just didn't want to die the damn thing, it didn't want to die and her flesh chains seemed to be keen on sapping out his strength, if they managed to latch on. Maybe it was for that reason that he had found himself nearly unable to pump out the Bijuu's chakra.

"Oniisan…stop keeping me away from HIM!" as the monster charged once more, blood, bones, claws, twisted flesh chains, all thrown in one last effort, B decided it was time to cut the battle down.

At least, that was his thought, before a flash of yellow came to the side of the beast, covering it in chakra suppressing seals in the blink of an eye, sapping out the vile and rotten chakra from within, and making the flesh beast gurgle in spasms as it slowly assumed the form of a fainted, and naked, blue haired girl. That fell on the ground, or would have, if a blond haired man with a white mantle that had flames etched upon didn't grab her, staring back at the Hachibi Jinchuuriki with his eyes narrowed.

"We can't catch him now, we need more lower tails before moving to him," as the Human Path voice spoke, Minato nodded, he too didn't want to fight with his daughter under his arm, his fainted *and* naked daughter. She was growing up to be just like her mother too.

"Well, let's get out of here then," and with that, the two, plus their fainted captor, Hiraishin'd out of there, leaving a panting B to catch his breath.

Just as they did, truthfully, leave, Kakashi and Toruna reached the clearing, with the latter panting hard, as he seemed to be slightly pale.

"I sent them another way, but they must have followed the noise," Toruna muttered, as B raised an eyebrow at the man, and then at the silver haired Jounin from Konoha.

"Hatake Kakashi, I am to escort the two Konoha's ninja assigned to the Iron Lands tracker to Kumogakure…" but as soon as he said that, he slowly added, "but it seems we met halfway, so I could drop them now, if you want to," he finished, before turning his gaze to the area around them, "must have been one hell of a fight."

"Yeah, saw the bastard too, you alright bro?" as B queried to Toruna, the man nodded back, hinting an awry smile.

"Then let's get to Cat and decide there, Shoko-chan and Mabui-chan are still in Kumo, but I ain't the leader her, it's Toruna-san," as the Hachibi said that, Kakashi sported an eye smile.

"Then I'm sure I'll have to speak with Toruna-san later on…I have a *lot* of questions to ask, after all," and with that, they slowly began leaving the forest behind, or what remained of it after their fights.

*Inn*

Yugito raised an eyebrow, as she saw Toruna walking in, his face utterly pale, and harshly breathing, Sakura was the first one to understand what was going on, and moved forward, only to have the very same clothes of the man hiss at her, readying themselves to bite.

"I'm fine," the man spoke, sitting down, as, with the time, he finally let his free and working hand glow a faint green hue, with which he began healing his broken bone, gritting his teeth at the pain.

"I could help with that," Sakura replied, "I'm a medic-nin, I trained under Tsunade-taichou, and…"

"I understand, but I'm fine," Toruna muttered back, letting the pain slowly subside from him, as he slowly mended the broken bones and closed the internal bleeding that he had been suffering of for a while, before sighing once more, in relief.

Sakura felt a twinge of guilt, at the man not wanting her to help him, but then again, maybe he had to prove his strength? Still, the way he had talked to Kakashi…it made her really believe he could be…but hadn't he died? Wasn't the removal of a Bijuu from a man lethal? After his death, it had come out clearly that he had been the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki, and now he was there, tracking down the new one? Was he out for revenge? Was he there to take back the Kyuubi? She had so many questions, but even then, the man didn't seem willing to speak much, as he slowly turned his gaze to the two captured Oto-ninjas, who were still out cold, and to the sleeping form of Yakumo.

"Well then, how about you present yourself?" Toruna queried, looking at Sakura's green eyes with his dark blue ones.

"I…I'm Sakura Haruno, medic-nin, and I've been sent here by the Godaime Hokage to assist the Iron Land's tracker…it's you, right?" Toruna nodded slowly, before whispering back.

"I'm Toruna of the snakes," Yugito's hand twitched at that, but she said nothing, "best tracker of the land of iron, sent personally by Mifune-sama to find and bring to Kumogakure the nine tailed Jinchuuriki," as he finished speaking, Sakura's eyes bulged in surprise. She *hadn't* connected the dots, if he was Naruto, if he really was him…then he was also Toruna…and that meant…

"You're a world renowned famous writer, the best tracker of the Iron land, the Toruna of Snakes…you…you're famous…and strong!" it was childish to exclaim that, but it did make Toruna chuckle, before shaking his head.

"No, there is always someone stronger than you…this is how life works…but I do hope on correcting that with time, however…now, I say we could have a little chat with the already awake miss," as Toruna pointed at the red haired girl, Yugito nodded, before moving to get her, and, albeit she *was* faking sleep by keeping her eyes closed, she was suddenly lifted and then dropped hard on the ground, made to roll right next to where Toruna was sitting, albeit, actually, it seemed more like she had rolled there on purpose, before groaning, muffling something under her mouth gag, and getting on her knees.

Karin had heard enough to know just *who* the man was, well, it was their mission to capture him, and they had been captured instead, she kind of wondered where Sumire, or Sasuke, were, but right then she only had one thought: to get out alive.

"Can't have you go back to your chief, I'm afraid," Toruna hissed slowly, moving his face close to the girl, to whisper in her ear, while letting his breath slowly work its way in making Karin blush, it was like speaking to a tender lover, it was…well, she was having a small blood stream trickling down her nose.

Yugito slowly blushed, as too did Sakura, while Kakashi, B and Motoi began mentally jotting down notes.

"So, I've got something I'd like to propose to you…" he slowly added, gently nibbling her ear, a thing that made the red-haired girl blush with an ever fiercer dark red, "you tell me what I want to know, and I'll personally treat you to something special," as he finished talking, in a suave way, Yugito's mouth was agape, did her Otouto, her mentally fourteen year Otouto just use pick-up lines from some sort of trashy romance novel?

It took a moment to undo Karin's ball gag, and by then, the girl was staring, literally squirming, at the man in front of her, who smiled, before slowly speaking.

"Where is Orochimaru's base?" at the question, Karin took a moment to look at the asleep form of her teammate, before whispering back.

"Will I be protected if I help you out?" Toruna nodded making a gentle smile, before replying.

"Not only that, but I'll personally escort you, even to your bed," and with those words, Yugito and Sakura's faces turned red, just as Karin's eyes actually bulged in shock, before letting more blood gush out from her nose, as B and Kakashi repressed chuckles and Motoi simply decided to try that out next time he was on a date with someone.

"I…" she looked at his chakra, it was enormous, shining brightly like a sun, like *the* sun, a warm green bask, it didn't even seem the same chakra she had faced before being knocked out, and instead, right now, it was there, so warm and soft…it made betraying Orochimaru so much…worth it.

"Only if you promise me something," Karin replied slowly, and that, that made Toruna tense visibly, "I want you to kill Kabuto, Orochimaru's right hand," and with that, Toruna slowly nodded…well, it was time to close a loose end, after all.

*Hidan and Kakuzu-One week and a half later*

"You know Kakuzu, I thought something, just to fuck with Jashin-sama," Hidan said, after having tried for the ninety-seventh time to kill Kakuzu, in what now as a nice picture of a hellish landscape, in the middle of the frost country's plains.

"And what would that be, you damn fanatic?" Kakuzu replied, growling.

"Well, what if they decide *not* to go back by foot? I mean…like taking a boat again?"

"And how would they do that? It would take more time to prepare a boat then to go by foot," Kakuzu replied to the fanatic.

"Yeah, but what if they *had* a boat leased to them, then they wouldn't need to actually *wait* for a shipping line to bring them all the way towards the land of lightning port city," at those words, Kakuzu stared for a brief moment at Hidan, blinking for a second, before scratching his head.

"You know…I think you're right,"

"FUCK JASHIN! I'M KILLING YOU NOW!" and with that, they battled again.

*Kumogakure-One week and a half later*

Mabui and Shoko stood in wait at Kumo's gates. They had to wait on the shinobis from Konoha to come around, after all, and with that, they were the first to saw a really strange beeline of people coming forward, with strange dark cloud looming over them.

Darui and Amaru, on the other hand, had been called there to escort a *prisoner* to the prisons of Kumogakure. The first was there for work, the second was there because the first was, and because she had free time to spare. Since the destruction of her home, and of everything else she held dear, she had found herself with no other purpose but to keep being a medic, being taught by C, while actually…well, she *was* blushing every now and then giving some stares to Darui, who had saved her from death, and who seemed such a calm and collected individual…

First to arrive was Toruna, or Naruto, holding by the waist, while smiling brightly, what was a red-haired woman with glasses, who seemed completely lost in thoughts of love, a thing that made the two look like a couple, of newlyweds. Behind them came the Nibi Jinchuuriki, her face red, and also the origin of the dark clouds of anger that seemed to hang around the group of returning shinobis. She wasn't alone in this, however, as also the two Konoha's Kunoichi had been in the process of fuming over such a display, while, behind them, Kakashi and B were doing their very best to hold out from laughing at the scene. Tayuya stood gagged, tied up in a sort of salami way, and was most uncaringly carried on B's shoulder, like a bag of potatoes.

Shoko pointed at the scene, while Mabui, simply keeping a cool air, moved closer before slowly speaking to the Konoha's ninjas.

"It is a pleasure to meet Konoha's representatives in the search for the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki," as she raised her hand to handshake that of Kakashi, she held a firm grip as she watched over the two Kunoichis from Konoha, "You have already spoken with Toruna-san?" at the question, Kakashi nodded, replying sheepishly.

"Yes, but not in full detail, he will explain more in private, that much he said," as the group actually neared the gate, Toruna sighed, then, staring at a starry eyed Karin, grabbed her in bridal style, making the girl squeal in delight, and making the clouds of jealousy from the Kunoichi thunder, as he then proceeded to bring the girl, who was giggling like a madmen, towards Kumo's Institutional Rehabilitation Center, and there, dropping her off in a chakra suppressing cells, closing the door behind him and leaving her to her whining about being unfair, while in the meantime Mabui carried the rest of the group to report to the Raikage, and Darui and Amaru brought Tayuya to her own cell, having Motoi arrived sooner than them, since he didn't need to take care of two prisoners, and thus being able to warn of the upcoming arrival of the *problems*.

"Bridal style carrying till the bed, done," Toruna muttered to himself, as he left the pristine white corridors of the institution, just in time to get *nearly* hugged from the back by Anko, who actually worked in said institute. Nearly, because the snakes from his clothes hissed at her moving closer and the purple haired woman pouted.

"No fair! You carry a girl in bridal style, and you don't even let your One…first fan hug you!" at that, Toruna turned around, scratching the back of his head, before hissing slowly to his snakes, and then nodding at the woman, who, grinning, moved closer, to then begin a chokehold maneuver, hissing back.

"So…who's the girl and why is she here?" as Anko queried that, Toruna briefly explained what had happened, telling the woman *nearly* everything, until she, in the end, looked at the man's face, with a slight pout.

"Well…I'm still holding you responsible for leaving after barely a day, just to go train at that stupid waterfall, where you stayed only *one* day…really, how stupid can you be? One lone day of watching a fall, instead of some weeks to catch on with me? I feel sad that you prefer running water over Anko-chan," as she feigned being offended, Naruto shook his head slowly, gently patting the woman's hair.

"Now, now, to think I've brought you a gift…" as he said that, turning around to leave, he was grabbed by the arm by the woman, who grinned.

"A gift, huh? And what is it? So, tell me, what is it?" as she queried that, sparkle in the eyes, Naruto chuckled, before producing from his sleeve a blue box.

"Dangos special from the Hot Springs Village…they say eating one is like being in heaven," as he pointed that out, Anko's forehead suddenly bulged a nervous tick.

"And just *when* did you take the time to go there? Doesn't it take more than a week and a half to go there, and same time to get back?" at that…Naruto nervously laughed, before dashing off, leaving the dango box in Anko's hands.

"Oh…just wait tonight Otouto…" she whispered slowly, "I know where you live, oh that I know," and with an evil cackle she moved to her next victim…well, *work*.

*Raikage's office*

"…and that's why I think we should warn Suna Bro," as B finished recalling the words of the man that was together with *that man* the Raikage gritted his teeth, before nodding as he had just finished getting the report from both B and Yugito, and had yet to hear that of his son. Turning to the Konoha's ninjas, he stared at their probable mission leader, and spoke.

"So…Danzo sent a token force," the Raikage pointed out, as Kakashi, on the other hand, couldn't say much to counter the argument.

"Hokage-sama decided to send out his best tracker teams in their entirety…and thus he didn't think it would be much of a problem,"

_A nice way to point that out, _Sakura thought, as she eyed Yakumo, who had been in the process, for a while, of pinching her arm, to prove she wasn't just deluding herself in a Genjutsu, as, once the Raikage had activated the privacy seals, he had told them about Toruna being Naruto, and had ordered them to keep the secret, or they *would* enter the Kumo's bingo book.

"I see, so he thought the same thing as me…no offense, but leaving it all on *his* shoulders seemed too big of a responsibility," just as the Raikage finished speaking, a pouting Toruna appeared in the middle of the room, his arms crossed, sighing. The snake motif on the Raikage's floor seemed to move for a moment, before returning to its still, and hopefully bi-dimensional, appearance.

"I went head to head against the Toad Sage, Otou-san, can't you trust me a bit on how strong I am? I'm the snake sage after all!"

"Jiraiya-sama fought against you?" Kakashi was surprised, he wouldn't have thought *that* strong, while Naruto clearly had gotten stronger, the silver haired Jounin had thought more on the lines of being as strong as him, maybe, not as strong as one of the legendary Sannin!

"Yeah, and he made a mess while I didn't even use all my skills," Naruto replied, rolling his eyes over, before feeling his snakes tense, as he turned around in time to see Yakumo slowly moving towards him, tears in her eyes. He swiftly hissed his snakes to *not* bite the girl, who, after a brief second of hesitation, went to outright hug the man tightly, crying on his chest.

"Do all females I know of have to cry on my chest?" Naruto muttered with an amused tone, as he caressed Yakumo's hair in turn.

"Well, we did think you were dead for three years!" Sakura muttered back, "and in that time you become someone so…nearly unrecognizable, just…it's normal to be emotional about it!" she snapped at the man, who nodded silently.

"Naruto-kun," Yakumo whispered, "you're my best friend and…I always regretted not telling you this before but…" and just as Yakumo *was* about to speak, the door of the Raikage's office fell down in one swift swoop, as a woman, with nice curves, raven-shoulder length hair, a forehead protector of the Nadeshiko village, came in a scroll of paper in hand, yelling:

"Get your hands off my husband right now!"

And with that, Naruto rolled his eyes…just when was he going to get peace?

**Author's notes**

**Saki didn't kill her real, biological, mother, she killed her root trainer who worked by feigning being her *training mother*.**

**Another so called *filler chapter*, albeit it's not much of a filler, as it shows some of the most dangerous enemies (foreshadowing!) that Naruto will have to face head-on later on. Next chapter will be the start of the so called *one-tail* arc, which will, however, hold the last part of the *Iron land-wife* side-show.**

**Remember that Naruto doesn't know *who* has the Jinchuuriki, nor that Danzo is the culprit.  
While it might seem strange that Naruto didn't outright attack Minato, when he saw him, remember this is a smart Naruto, not the idiot dressed in orange who charges forward while nearly beaten up. And his chakra reserves are no longer *infinite* they are Infinite/2.**

**Sumire's fate: You'll see…*chuckles***

**Tamult: Why would I give out emotional rollercoasters? We are in the *revenge* arc of Naruto! He should be the one hitting around…not being trashed!**

**Esparza: we will see when we will get there. It can either become a stairway to heaven, or a highway to hell (Music titles worthy of being mentioned)**

**Wyrtha: Yeah, I didn't realize it, but he shifted on his own out of being into one of the pairings…it would be creepy.**

**This is not Harem, I'll repeat it once more: it's one girl. One. **


	24. SH: Finding

Twenty-fourth chapter

Silence in the Raikage's office was something that wasn't meant to last. For the time it did stay, Naruto kept on a neutral expression, preferring it to the utterly shocked ones of the people around him, while some were lecherously shocked, others were truly shocked, and some, some were fuming red.

"I said to get away from my husband," the woman spoke politely, eying Yakumo badly, as the raven haired girl got her right hand near her waist line, where she was slowly moving her index to grab for a Kunai, "before things get messy," she slowly added: she had a shoulder pad on her right shoulder, and with a forming suit that seemed to simply line out all of her womanly curves, something that neither Yakumo, or Sakura had, and something that Yugito *did* have but that weren't much seen, as usually, the Nibi Jinchuuriki preferred shinobi outfits made for practical use, and not for...showing off.

"And just who the hell are you, to barge in like this!" the Raikage snapped back, getting on his feet.

"I am Shizuka," the woman replied with a, strangely polite, bow, "the daughter of the Nadeshiko village leader, and of Mifune, the Iron Land's leader," Naruto suddenly gurgled, as he slowly pushed Yakumo away, to reassume a composed, and stern, attitude, "and the reason I am here, is because Toruna of the snakes and I are meant to marry the moment I deem him worthy of," as she finished speaking, she looked at Naruto for a brief second, before nodding silently to herself, "and there's nothing in him that seems weak, so I deem him worthy."

"You know," Yugito pointed out snapping, before the Raikage could say anything, "Usually it should be two-ways, a marriage that is," as she finished, Shizuka made a small smile, kind of like a condescending one, to the girl, making a nervous tick mark appear on the Nibi Jinchuuriki.

"Since Toruna," without the use of appellatives, Sakura and Yakumo both gasped slightly, "has no father," A would have wanted to say something, but couldn't, "then it falls to Mifune, as the leader of the samurais, to take on the marriage proposals, as the samurais are all under my father's rule, he chooses strong women for them, so that they may in turn birth strong children," at the notion of that, Kakashi suddenly imagined a muscle-bound woman yelling with a pinwheel at a poor samurai sod, "and since I am his only daughter, he chose for the best of Iron Lands the best woman he could," as she pointed that out, she slowly unwrapped the scroll she had in her silky smooth hands, handing it over to Toruna, who silently read it, before nodding.

"Appears so," Toruna muttered, earning shocked looks from Yakumo and Sakura, and a narrow eye gaze from Yugito, "However I was planning on departing tomorrow for the tracking mission," he slowly added, "may the marriage wait until I have returned?" as he queried that, Shizuka smiled gently, before replying.

"The marriage, yes, but till then, please show me around Kumogakure, and my lodgings for the time I'll wait for you," with that, Naruto nodded, hissing slowly to his snakes, as he moved forward and Shizuka wrapped herself around his right arm, gently letting her head fall on his right shoulder, as the two left the Raikage's office, walking over the busted down door.

Silence crept once more on the scene, until finally B killed it with a loud rapping song.

"Hell yeah! The bro's got a girl!

A hot one that swirls!

Can't wait for da nephews!

More rappers and less curfews!" A slowly got up from his seat, moving closer to B, but, at the same time, Sakura did the same, before the two, nodding to one another, unleashed an Iron Claw and a chakra enhanced punch on the man, sending him on the ground floor of the Raikage's tower.

It wasn't until minutes later, that everyone was dismissed from the office, and, unknown to the others, everyone mentally decided to see what the two *lovebirds* would be up to.

Sakura was doing her best to hide her pain, keeping her hand over the clothing that hid, underneath it, her burn marks, was it because of those hideous scars that she wasn't in Naruto's mind? Was it because she wasn't strong enough? Maybe he'd change idea, if he saw her act during the tracking mission? Would he actually go against the order of samurais, for love? No, he wouldn't. Naruto was always keen on his word, if he had even gone as far as swearing obeisance to Mifune, then he wouldn't break his word, no matter the cost. She understood she'd never have him, and that made her feel sad, that much was certain, but she had kind of known that since a long time, Naruto was in need of a woman who could be by his side, no matter what, and she wasn't that woman…not yet, at least. However Sakura gave quick glances to Yakumo, who was walking right next to her, kind of wobbling on her feet. Her eyes were set on the road, but she seemed to be muttering something, something that Sakura couldn't quite hear well.

"…should…why her? I am… no… it's true…" as she queried herself, and answered too, the pink-haired Kunoichi stared at her teammate with a slightly sorrowful expression, Yakumo had planned to confess to Naruto since a long time, once she had realized who he was, but she had thought of doing so only once it had been proven…and she had been stopped, she had gathered all her courage for nothing, it seemed.

"Yakumo-chan," Sakura whispered to the girl, who looked back at her with her eyes slightly watery, "we'll be on a tracking mission together with him, you could confess then," as she slowly suggested that, Yakumo's eyes still kept the lingering sorrow, as she slowly eyed her own chest, and then even Sakura's, a thing that made the pink-haired Kunoichi sport a tick mark.

"But she's clearly better than me," Yakumo whispered back, "in many areas," she slowly added.

"Maybe, but you have to tell him never the less, what if he doesn't like her, and prefers you?" as Sakura suggested that, albeit knowing full well neither of the two girls stood a chance, against the more mature and grown up woman, a cough made both girls turn around, to stare at their other teammates for the mission, Shoko and Mabui.

"I was thinking, you know, that we could get to know each other before going on a mission together," as Shoko pointed that out cracking her knuckles, Mabui rolled her eyes, before politely saying.

"Somewhere to sit down and talk, Shoko-chan, they need to rest for tomorrow: differently from us, they walked all the way here, and are certainly tired," as the other dark skinned woman spoke, Yakumo and Sakura kept their gaze on her front aspects, their face slightly green.

"I know of a certain place that sells *special* milk," Shoko grinned, realizing where the stares were at, before touching her own chest, "Yugoro says that massaging also helps…" as she finished whispering that out, Mabui rolled her eyes before whispering something to Shoko's ear.

"WHAT! That dirty…" the next moment, Shoko ran off in the distance, and a couple of minutes later cry of pain echoed through the city.

"Please excuse her," Mabui muttered, "She's a nice girl, but tends to be too direct," she finished, before letting her gaze wander to Ichiraku's ramen, "I'm sure you're hungry, so how about we go take a seat, and eat something?"

The two girls actually wanted to mope some more, but the thought of taking a break and relaxing wasn't that bad, so they followed the elder woman to Teuchi's stall, where they began small talking, until Sakura finally queried the dreaded question.

"Excuse me…Mabui-san," Sakura whispered, "but does…you know, *him*, like anyone?" at that, Mabui's gaze softened, before chuckling slightly and then, turning her gaze around, she whispered into Sakura's ears.

"You should ask him, he'd probably give you a straight out answer," and with that, the girl's face became as pink as her hair, while Mabui resumed eating down her vegetable ramen.

"I'm going to do it, the next time I see him, I'm going to do it," Yakumo suddenly exclaimed, planting her chopsticks on the wooden stall's counter, that earned herself a perplexed look from Teuchi, and from Ayame, who, however, with her female sixth sense, simply shrugged to her father, claiming it was love sickness.

On the other side of the village, Toruna of the snakes was staring at the lakes of rain water that were pooled inside the rock basins, for later use by the city, Shizuka was next to him, staring at the scene with a perplexed expression. It surely didn't seem romantic, as a first place, but then again, Toruna of the snakes was *strong* nobody ever spoke about strong and romantic get side to side. Still, the man didn't seem to take a care in the world, keeping his sight dead-locked on the whirlpool of water that seemed to be syphoned in the underground rock caverns that held the city's potable water, and that Genin teams cleaned every now and then, for a D mission that nobody liked to do.

"You are strange," Shizuka muttered, eying the man with her green eyes, as Toruna raised an eyebrow at the woman, "You seem unfazed from my flirting attempts," she pointed out, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"I grew up surrounded by women, some even more endowed than you," that made Shizuka flinch, just what was he saying? There was no way someone could be more endowed than her! "and it just rubbed off me, I rarely see the external aspect of someone…as the interior is what matters…and it's mostly wicked, truthfully, it's completely wicked," as he whispered that with a slightly sad tone, he shook his head, before Shizuka replied to him, with a sort of thoughtful tone.

"I do not think everyone has a wicked inside…but is something bothering you, my betrothed?" at the question, Toruna raised his left hand, opening his palm and slowly flexing his fingers, before replying.

"I'm always getting stronger," he pointed out, "but how can I defeat even stronger foes than me, when I'm conflicted within myself?"

"What do you mean?" Shizuka queried, not understanding what the man was speaking about.

"I feel…different things," Toruna replied, sighing, "A shinobi wears a mask upon his face, it's needed to act in a certain way, but some time, the mask remains on even when one wouldn't want to, and, in the end, the mask *becomes* the shinobi," as he explained, Shizuka nodded.

"I know of something like that, usually relaxing helps," as the woman replied, with a serious face, she added, "if you wish I *could* give you a massage," she suggested, not intending anything else, as they weren't, yet, married.

"Well, it wouldn't work," Toruna replied, shaking his head, "I've got far more stress than anyone else, as I'm not alone, as I said before…I've got many others," as he replied that, Shizuka's eyes slowly narrowed down.

"Are you feigning madness, to avoid the marriage, my betrothed?" at that question, that came with a hint of anger, Toruna simply laughed, shaking his head.

"No, I promised Mifune-sama I would obey his every order as long as I, Toruna of the snakes, lived. If he wishes us married, then I will obey," as he finished speaking, his dark blue eyes set themselves upon Shizuka's face, "but I'm afraid I cannot love anyone, not yet anyway, as there are too many weights upon my conscience, and too many things I have to resolve before," as he whispered that, he recalled the Kyuubi's words, out of everyone else's.

_It's the pathetical thing you humans call *love*, it eventually leads to betrayal then scorn, hate and anger until anger becomes fury, and fury becomes revenge…sweet revenge._

He didn't want to love, because he'd get hurt, deep down, he knew that was the truth, but he kept it at bay, together with the other mass of twirling emotions that seemed so keen on getting towards him, but he kept them at bay, he had no need for them, at the present, but sometime they simply resurfaced, it took a face, a moment, a person, a fact, and then they'd resurface from his calm attitude, and Toruna's armor would crack to reveal Naruto's. That was something he couldn't let happen, not if he wanted to kill his enemies.

"Some weights could be shared," Shizuka suggested, after a couple of moments of staring at the man's eyes darting around lost in thoughts, "no matter how heavy they could be," she whispered, slowly letting her left hand caress the man's right cheek, "I am not a woman to be baby-sat, or to be gifted jewels or gold, so a little bit of weight is nothing, for my shoulders," as she finished that, she bit her lower lip. The man's eyes were just like those of her father, but his had years and years of battles, assassination attempts, training, of blood and death, this man was in his prime, like she was, but then again, why did he feel even older than her father? His eyes were like those of the elder shinobis, those who have seen the horrors of more than one Great War, and still, they lingered there, staring at her. What horrors did the man see? Even before his start as Toruna of the snakes, even before him becoming the best tracker of the Iron Lands…just who was he, to have such eyes?

"My weights are mine alone to keep," the man replied, grabbing her hand and slowly pushing it back down, away from his face, "and I have to get going, or he is surely going to get angry, can't let Alpha be angry," and with those enigmatic words, Toruna turned to leave, before dispersing in a cloud of smoke.

It was the beginning of November…it was time to become one again.

*Ryuchi cave*

Naruto appeared in the center of the cave, where his other selves stood silent, all ready to disperse, one at the time, while Hakuja was sitting on his throne, playing shogi with Kuro. Both giant snakes smiled at the boy, waving their tails at him, before returning to the task at hand. Hakuja waving his tail was something strange, but Naruto said nothing, nothing at all. Alpha was the first to disperse. Taijutsu memories flowed within him, making him go through fluid motions and repeated exercises, making him learn styles he could have mastered in a month of time, and granting him insight, and knowledge, on them. Then came Beta, and with him, the chakra training and the Ninjutsu part, his chakra and his knowledge flew into Naruto, as he could feel scrolls upon scrolls being read and stored in his mind, who slowly began a pulsing headache from the information, then it was Gamma's turn, as ways to battle and defeat the Genjutsus stashed themselves in a corner, there was no space, so space had to be made. Delta dispersed to reveal the Tail and Scale situation, their training, their quirks, their attitude, and how they were divided in groups. Epsilon dispersed, as torture methods and medical knowledge flew freely inside of him, granting him the insight for bettering his own healing jutsus. Then it was Omega's turn. The man in front of him was wearing a white lab coat, and after staring for a brief second at Naruto, he shook his head, and dispersed. His knowledge, his love for the young born, flew into him, followed by days of regret, in knowing he wasn't the original one, that his life was coming to an end soon, and that there was nothing he could do to avoid it, as it was for the greater good. Omega was the one with more free time, out of them all, and for that, he also was the one that began thinking first about being a different being, a different one from Naruto.

Then, the clones that would normally gather Sage chakra dispersed one after the other, their memories of simply sitting down on the cold rock echoing into his head and being trashed in mere seconds. Then, finally, it was the turn of the last clone.

"Toruna," Naruto whispered, looking at the man clad in steel, himself, or who he should have been, and the man nodded back, "let's get this over with," as Naruto himself got his katana ready, the two blades clashed in sparks, as Toruna, differently from the others, wouldn't back down from a fight. It was his style, he was Naruto, and Naruto was Toruna, since clone dispersal gave insight also to his clones, they both fought equally, but, at the same time, they both resorted to only Kenjutsu, a fact that granted Toruna the advantage…as he was the one who trained in the field.

The Katanas swiped crescent arcs that sparkled once they clashed and fending motions became piercing ones after the flicker of a wrist, as Hakuja watched the fight with interest, as too did Kuro, wounds began appearing on Naruto's body, small cuts, the product of wind chakra in Toruna's blade, until, in the end, the samurai went with a KIAI shout moving the sword downwards in a strong motion. In that moment, Naruto pierced forward, and just as Toruna's blade stood millimeters from Naruto's head, the clone dispersed in smoke. Toruna was his rage, rage that flew into Naruto's body, together with the knowledge that he was training fiercely, to prove he existed, and that Naruto didn't. Omega was kinder, but Toruna, Toruna was fiercer.

"You should stop from using the Kage Bunshins for that long time, Naruto," Kuro hissed, staring at the boy, "while it does help you in training, I'd suggest quantity over quality, and in short periods of time," he slowly added.

"Quality always defeats quantity, Kuro," Naruto replied, before turning his gaze to Hakuja, and making a polite bow before leaving the cave.

"He didn't create shadow clones this time around," Hakuja pointed out, "he might do that later on though…a pity if he doesn't, I find his clones interesting, like the fact that we're tied right about…now," and as Hakuja went for the twenty-seventh draw, Kuro sighed, the white sage snake really did like Shogi.

*Naruto*

He reappeared straight in his room, only to find that Shizuka, obviously, was waiting, sitting on his bed, her long legs crossed and a smile on her face.

"Thought you could hide your room from me?" she queried, with a slight teasing tone, as she stared into the man's eyes that seemed slightly bloodshot, like one who hasn't slept for days…but it had been only hours since they had last seen each other.

"No, I suppose not," he whispered back, before slowly easing himself on the bed, his eyes closed, but, to Shizuka's keen senses, still awake, he was resting like any high level shinobi did, closing the eyes for some darkness, but never utterly sleeping. It didn't bring the best of sleeps, but it worked to avoid the hallucinations from sleep deprival.

"You know you're safe, here," Shizuka pointed out, as she, kind of girlishly, she had to admit that, let her back drop down next to the man, using his own arm as a pillow.

"The only safe place is the dirt of one's own grave," he muttered back, as he eased his own breath, "and you seem rather content about marrying me, do you not have anyone you love?" at the question, Shizuka's face darkened for a brief moment, before replying in a murmur.

"I had one…but then he was killed by brigands…the man who avenged him turned out to be a half-naked half clad in wolf pelt madman who yelled about clean underwear…so I think it's the right thing to do," as she spoke slowly, Naruto's thoughts mulled over how soft she felt, and how her breath on his cheek seemed kind of warm, but he shook the thought away, as he needed the shut-eye to rest, at least, to try and rest.

"Bound by honor, like a true samurai, but aren't you from Nadeshiko village?" he queried, recalling the forehead protector.

"Well…my father and my mother met a long time ago, she challenged him, and he defeated her, and she claimed the Nadeshiko village rite for marriage, so, after I was born I lived there for a long while…before going to meet my father, that's where I met my first love…and where I lost him," she replied, slowly, trying to see the cracks in the man's armor, there had to be a human being, under the armor that clad Toruna of the snakes, and she was sure she'd at least see it. She had no doubts it would probably be a loveless marriage for a while, but even those eventually tended to sprout something. The man wasn't a boaster, and he did seem a kind person. Still, if his actions were anything like the reports he gave back…her father had told her to be extremely careful not to insist too much, or he'd close up like a steel ball.

"I see," was all that Naruto replied back, as he slowly eased some more, before slowly tensing back, was he…testing her?

"You're trying to see if I want to plunge a kunai in your throat?" She queried, her voice betraying her shock.

"Trust no one, and you will live to old age," he muttered back, "but I'm surprised you caught my trail of thought," he added.

"I'm not the daughter of two strong shinobis because I'm pretty," she gritted her teeth as she replied that, "don't underestimate me, my betrothed," she slowly added, before nuzzling her face on his shoulder, "because I will make you want to marry me, by the time you'll be back," she added, with a small smile, "which means I've got an entire day to try, for the moment," she teased, "I could give you a…"

"Sleep, please," Toruna replied with a sigh, before slowly touching her hair with his gloved hand, and just like that, the woman felt a lingering wave of sleep grab her, and lull her into the land of dreams.

When Shizuka woke up groggily, stirring slightly as she realized she had slept, instead of trying to conquer the man's heart, and, as a result, she slowly got up from the empty bed, before shaking her head, and slowly, but clearly, realizing the truth.

"The guts he has in drugging me…" she whispered, "the guts…" she slowly added, as outside the window she could see the sun dawn...meaning she had slept for an entire day.

*Naruto's team*

Toruna of the snakes stood silently, at the gates of Kumogakure. Kakashi had promised not to speak of who he really was, and for that, he was grateful. The copy-cat Nin had already departed, earlier in the morning, to get back to Konoha, leaving Sakura and Yakumo into his hands. It was his team now. Shoko and Mabui stood silently, in their Kumogakure's armor. Shoko was in her chuunin one, green and with enough pockets to fill an armory, probably obtained through promotion on the field, and that had been painted with camouflaging paint, while Mabui had her white Jounin one, that had been colored in an integral black, much to the silver-haired woman's dismay, their Kumo's symbols on the forehead, as they had been ordered to keep up appearances, no matter what. Sakura and Yakumo had both been forced to swap their colors, to dark green stinted ones and brown, but they did wear their Konoha's headband on the forehead too.

"First things first," he said, at the gates, "I'm Toruna of the Snakes, I know my work, and I expect no less than full obeying, got it? If I say jump I want to see you jump. If I say run I want to see you run, and if I say anything, anything at all, I'm expecting you lot to obey, crystal clear?"

"Yes, Toruna-san," came the reply from three out of four Kunoichis, while the fourth, being Shoko, menacingly raised a fist in the man's direction, but kept it down after a stare from Mabui.

"Good, call me captain while we're out on the mission, this here is standard issue, so get it on," and without further ado, he slowly pressed into each of the Kunoichi's palm a small green jaded earring, resembling a snake, that slithered as fast as light towards each girl's ear lobe, to bite onto it, and stay attached.

"Hey! I don't like that!" Shoko grumbled, trying to get it off, but not managing to.

"Keep it on. Those are my summons," Toruna muttered back, "they will send me a reverse summon call, and I will reach for them, appearing to help you out *if* we get separated, so don't lose them, and don't try and take them off, Shoko!" he snapped at the girl, his gaze narrowing down, "take it off and I'll force one of them through your skin, understood?"

The girl stopped her whining, as the gaze she received was something only C had done, once, after she had *mistakenly* given him green dye for clothes to the medic-nin instead of shampoo…C hadn't forgiven her, yet.

"Good, now let's get going," and with that, Toruna turned to walk down the road, his first plan was to reach Sunagakure, trying to intercept the Akatsuki there, after B's report. Nobody else was there to wave them goodbye, as Toruna of the snakes was *not liked* while Naruto was, so, with a mixture of nervousness and awkwardness, Yugito and B actually just so casually patrolled near his group, getting down from the mountain where Kumo was located, and waved them goodbye.

_Otouto…if you don't come back, I'm tearing you apart next time._

_GO for it bro! We'll be waiting back here!_

The first few days of travel, went by silently, nervously so, as neither Yakumo nor Sakura said nothing, and neither did Mabui or Shoko, the only noise was actually their sleeping ones, as Toruna kept silently to himself, a must, as he needed to sense the air itself, a slight feeling of tension lingering, as they began trudging through what seemed cracked earth.

They should have been passing through flowery fields, but instead, it seemed that it an earthquake had passed by, leaving behind bloodied ground, and still lingering fires, as something akin to a giant battle had to have taken place in those fields, for quite a bit of time, too.

"Toruna-san," Sakura spoke for the first time in days, her voice slightly creaking, "is this…"

"Whoever did this, is no longer around, Haruno-san," Toruna replied, slowly, "I do not know why, but they are *not* around us anymore," he added, slowly.

"Good grief, stop your stick from getting till your head, *Toruna*!" Shoko snapped, "I'm sure you're thinking you're such a great thing, but in truth you can't be much stronger than Mabui-san here!"

"Shoko-chan," Yakumo whispered, "Toruna-san is strong…Mabui-san herself told us how he fought equally against Jiraiya of the Sannins," as she pointed that out, Shoko spit to the side of the road.

"Like hell I believe that! He always had to be helped during the exercises, and I ain't believing shit until I see it with my own eyes," as she pointed that out, Toruna stopped, silently, before turning his gaze towards the girl in question.

"Shoko-chan," he muttered, "I have never been in Kumogakure, so why would you be able to help me out?" he queried, as slowly the tension in the air became palpable. Shoko had just slipped with her tongue, but Toruna couldn't let it pass, the lesson needed to be understood perfectly.

"Oh come on! There's nobody around us…right?" Shoko nervously whispered back, as it felt like a snake was about to pounce on her.

"What if there was?" Toruna replied, "What if there actually was a hidden enemy I hoped to take out by surprise, and that I now have instead to face and kill?" he slowly added.

"Well…there isn't one, right?" Yakumo queried, worriedly.

"That hardly changes anything," Toruna replied, hardening his gaze, "this will be the only warning: next time, I'll have to knock you out immediately," and with that, the man turned around, starting to walk once more.

"Let's get going…" Mabui whispered to Shoko, who nodded silently. Just where had the polite and quiet boy of the class gone to? They were the same age, right? So why was he so much…adult, differently from them?

*Amegakure*

Sumire felt like somebody had been electrocuting her for the past hours. Truth be told, the array of seals around her neck seemed to be there only for that purpose: making her suffer, not that she had could see them, but they were there, not showing even the smallest glint of light, but pulsing on her shoulder, slowly making the cursed mark recede. The only thing she had seen, once woken up, was the darkness of a cellar, without any light, and, when trying to activate the cursed seal, all she had received back was pain, and not power. She felt bad, she felt bad because she needed a shower, as nobody had actually bothered to change her, it seemed, and she was now staring at the pitch black darkness in front of her, trying to come to terms with what had happened, and with what was going on.

She recalled she was fighting against a Kumo ninja, who had tried to keep her away from her Oniisan…she felt a nice tingly sensation course through her body, every time she thought, or spoke, about her Oniisan. It was nice, and it made her feel alive. Her eyes didn't adjust to the darkness, so there either was no light at all, or she simply had been blindfolded, but she didn't feel the fabric on her face. So it had to be darkness, complete and utter darkness.

Was this how her Oniisan felt, all those years?

She shivered, thinking about her Oniisan, shackled to the cellar, and then about her, coming down, to free him from the chains, to look at him with a smile, to bring up, to the light, next to her. Then she felt a sharp jolt of pain run through her veins, as she let out a cry that slowly turned into a moan. Even this pain was pleasurable, if it was for Oniisan.

She stood there, in the darkness, for she didn't know how much time, until, finally, she felt something soft brush her shoulder, like a piece of cloth, maybe, and, in the end, she finally saw the light once more.

She actually was in a cellar, but it wasn't as dark as she had thought. Somebody had prevented her from seeing, through the use of a seal, maybe, and had then removed it, probably having served its purpose. Next to her, stood a man she loathed and hated.

Her father, Minato Namikaze, smiled tenderly at the dirty mess of recently tinted back to red hair, obviously while she had been knocked out, and after removing the fake lenses, he could finally see her blue eyes reflecting upon him.

"Katsumi-chan, don't worry. Once the seal is removed, you'll be up and about," he whispered to her, "until then I'm afraid you'll have to stay here for a while, but your Kaa-san is going to be really happy when you'll meet again," Katsumi took the moment to spit on the man's face.

"Let me go you MONSTER!" She snarled, "Let me go! Oniisan needs me!" she yelled again, not being able to move her body, realizing, to her horror, that the man had placed seals upon her person.

"Him?" Minato snarled at the mention, "He's dead, I killed him, I should know," he added with a small chuckle, "but you'll forget this notion soon, when I give you a nice, good, memory swiping," as he finished speaking, however, he slowly added, "that is, if you won't be a good girl and realize just how Orochimaru used you, and you tell me where his bases are located," as he finished speaking, Katsumi spat at the man again, being the mouth and the tongue the only things she could move.

"Never! Orochimaru-sama will come and save me! As he saved me from YOU and from THAT woman! He'll save me again, and we'll save Oniisan once more! You…YOU KILLED ONIISAN!" as Katsumi roared in anger, realizing just what the man in front of her had said, she started savagely trashing her head around, forcing Minato to apply a seal on her forehead, to make her sleep. Mistakenly, Katsumi had thought that he had killed Naruto in the land of hot spring, and that misunderstanding was what made her snap at the man.

"Seems like I'll really need to wipe her memory…" he muttered, before slowing walking out from the refuge, the small one, he had deemed a safe house on the outskirts of Amegakure. His little girl was proving to be strongly brainwashed by Orochimaru…after removing the seal, the cursed one, he'd have to wipe her memory clean, at least of many things, and then, then he'd have his daughter back, his lovingly daughter back. Her and her stupid ideas of saving her Oniisan, the boy was dead, he killed him that day! He saw him die for over three long days, and he was dead!

The Human path stood in wait out of the entrance to the safe house, muttering.

"Deidara and Sasori are on their way to Suna, to capture the Ichibi," Minato nodded at the information, before the Human Path kept talking, "Toruna of the snakes is hiding something…I fought his summons…they are smarter than normal," he slowly added.

"Well, he's from the land of Iron…let's not attack them, or we risk becoming international criminals…instead of simply a criminal organization, sought out by Kumo and Konoha," Minato replied, spitting the last word out in spite.

"Well, Toruna is all the way in Kumogakure, it would take ages for him to reach Suna, no matter the mean of travel," the Human path noted, "I doubt he'd get there in time…and with that, there's no way he'd connect us two to the Akatsuki, nor of the real location of the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki…we'll have everything at hand…soon enough," and with those words, the Human path Shunshin'd away, leaving Minato to mull over his thoughts.

*Suna*

Gaara stood silently scribbling down notes for the sand shinobi. True, finances were a bit dear, since Konoha seemed to take pride in taking the best paid missions, and leaving them with the rest, but it didn't matter to him. As long as they kept red-haired women with chains away from him, he would more than gladly do whatever they wanted to. Slowly, the door of his office opened, as Kankuro, his left arm laying limp over his body, smiled awkwardly at Gaara. After being thoroughly trashed by that woman, Kankuro had lost completely the use of his left arm, the side that the woman had bitten him through, that hadn't stopped him from becoming a puppeteer, albeit it meant he simply used only one hand to control his puppet…which was wrong. Gaara knew that under that bandaged arm stood a mechanical one, with more than twenty wooden fingers. Kankuro, by controlling it, could control more than twenty at once. Not as strong as the numbers that Sasori of the Red Sand could, but it was Kankuro's objective to surpass that man, so who was he to say he couldn't try?

"Hey Gaara, you mind if I hide in here? Temari sure is bossy this time of the month," as the puppeteer spoke confidentially, the red-haired Kazekage nodded, letting his brother sit down on the sofa, where he took out a copy of *Icha-Icha Violence Redux*, beginning to grin slightly, every now and then.

Gaara recalled how everything had changed, after realizing just how, even the strongest of demons, had someone even stronger ready to put him in line. The Ichibi had made it clear: steer out of chains and red-haired women, and I'm letting you go about your business. He was still cringing in a corner somewhere in Gaara's mind, actually. Even after three years, it always surprised Gaara how much peaceful it was, the village, the persons, once you didn't have a voice in your head whispering for bloody murders.

Temari, soon enough, knocked at his door once more, entering it clearly pissed, as Kankuro hid behind the sofa just in the nick of time.

"Where did that idiot go? He's got team training exercises!"

"Temari-Oneesan," Gaara replied, pointing his gaze towards the sofa, "I don't know," he slowly added, as the sand from his gourd formed a sort of five-fingered hand, with the index pointing behind the sofa.

"HEY!" Kankuro screeched, jumping out from his hiding spot, only to have Temari grab him by the ear and carry him out among yells.

Then, there was silence again.

From behind him, on a nearby rooftop, a hidden blond haired woman with the Suna headband stood waiting, covered in a deep layer of rock and dirt, to hide from the patrols. She would later on move, after realizing that the Kazekage didn't seem to be doing anything out of the extraordinary, to slowly creep inside the house she had taken…*in loan* through the Root contacts, where she, a Suna Kunoichi who had retired do to a back injury, worked as a private escort for the petty businessman who was the owner of the building, that rented the houses out to people...basically a shady motel. She didn't feel disgust even when the man in question had slapped her ass with a lecherous attitude, nor had she said anything when he had outright suggested sexual intercourse to close the deal. She had however decapitated him when he had actually tried something, leaving his body, and his head, to rot in one of the building's many rooms. She slowly went to her room, as she decided to wash out the dirt and the sand, using the packed soap she carried around with her, always, that was made to neutralize scents, and, as she slowly uncorked the liquid soap, and let the water run, cold water, that is, she began cleaning herself, trying her best to ignore the voice.

**I killed a man, and I liked it, the taste of his blood on my lips…**

_Can you stop singing? It's distracting me._

**No, you don't talk with me, so I'll sing until you'll come to terms.**

_You are just…I don't know. You're a voice. Stop being a voice._

**I am the Kyuubi, the strongest of the Bijuu, and hadn't you a seal strong enough to keep me here, I'd lash out at you that I would! I mean, come on, you've got a nice body and a nice rack, go for sexy time!**

_What?_

**Sexy…time? You know what sex is, right?**

It took the woman a moment, before placing a hand in front of her mouth, staring around panicking. The voice was…the voice was saying such…NO! She had to ignore it. Ignore it completely, the voice was lying, she scrambled on her feet, naked, and looked at the mirror, she had to be lying, the voice was lying, she…it wasn't possible for that…she…she meant it, how could they come out like…NO.

"You're toying with me voice, but I ain't…I am not…No, I am Danzo-sama's tool, and I do not…"

**Now then, if you take two fingers and…**

"STOP IT!" she screeched, placing her hands against her head, "Stop it, stop it, stop it! I'm not listening no I'm not!" as the woman banged her head against the wall, somebody, politely, knocked at the door.

Slowly, she tensed up, letting the murmurs of the voice go in the background, albeit they were, still, nervously there. She slowly moved towards the door, a Kunai in hand, and slowly opened here a bit.

The next moment, the Kazekage raised an eyebrow, as he looked at the very much naked form of the woman in front of him, holding a Kunai.

"ehm…Kazekage-sama?" Saki queried, as she took a step back, letting the man enter.

"Saki-san…you are naked," the Kazekage replied, pointing that out and making the woman realize that it wasn't common practice to be naked around people. So, she hurriedly dressed up, before reassuming a stern face.

"Kazekage-sama, is there something you need?"

"I have…accepted, Danzo's proposition of an alliance," Gaara pointed out, handing a scroll over to the woman, who took it nervously, but nodding, "it will be kept a secret accord between me and him, without the need for the council to take part in it," he slowly added.

"Yes, Kazekage-sama," she replied, "I will use the usual means to have it delivered, as I was tasked with remaining here as a secret guard, as a sign of goodwill," but before she could dismiss herself, Gaara queried, slowly.

"That Jewel you hold on your neck," he queried, staring at the place where he had seen it, on the woman's neck, while she had opened the door naked, "was it a gift from someone?"

Saki stood silent, for a moment, before replying slowly.

"My teacher used to tell me that my father gave it to me, and that, if I had not trained properly, it would have been taken from me," the cursed seals on her mouth did nothing, as it wasn't an information of vital importance, nor anything at all that could in any way hinder Root, "I have nothing else from him," she slowly added.

"Strange…" Gaara muttered, "I recall someone else wearing it," he whispered.

"Who?" this time, Saki was genuinely curious, could it actually be her mystical father?

"A now dead man," the Kazekage replied, without saying another word, as he turned around to leave, leaving a confused Saki behind.

*Naruto*

Naruto sneezed, as he heard the famous rumbling sound of Kuro, underneath him.

"So, instead of summoning me out of the blue in Kumo, where it would have given problems…you summoned me in the middle of the water…of the cold water of the ocean, so that you could bypass Konoha and get to Suna in time," at that, Naruto nodded once more, as behind him Shoko was holding on with sheer determination not to fall off the giant flying snake, while Mabui was writing down her daily report, that she would then send to the Raikage. Yakumo had materialized from her Genjutsu making skills a saddle, a giant saddle, and she and Sakura were tightly holding onto it for their very lives.

"You know I can *feel* you nod because of the air vibration, but I'd rather hear you," Kuro replied, "you are making me take a long route around…and I hate long routes," he added.

"Kuro, are you starting to grumble like the elderly?" Naruto queried back, in a teasing tone, "Should I get you some warm chicken soup?"

"Chicken soup my scales!" Kuro hissed, "I am Kuro, the slithering darkness of the night, the biter of the apocalypse, not a taxi," he whispered, "though I could drop you out straight above Sunagakure…you know, air drop," as he stressed the last words, Shoko paled vividly.

"Tell your summoned snake not to do that, Captain! Please!" She actually pleaded, gritting her teeth.

"I'm sure Yakumo-chan could come up with a Genjutsu of sorts…like a parachute, a giant parachute," Naruto replied, as Yakumo, actually tied down to the saddle she was on, took the moment to ask a question, since she *was* going to probably die by falling down the giant flying snake.

"Captain! I have a question!"

"Ask away Yakumo-chan!" Naruto replied, just as Kuro's blue eyes fixated themselves on the water below.

Doing an Otogakure, Takigakure, Kusagakure, Amegakure would have been a better trip, all ground, everything fine. Instead they had gone south from Kumo, keeping the shoreline in line of sight, but otherwise moving in the air, passing by the remains of Uzushiogakure, then a brief moment of land in the land of fire, and then again water, passing by the side of Tanigakure, before landing near Sunagakure…and Kuro hated the water reverberations.

"…Are you in…" she blushed, whispering something that the high winds they were faring against didn't make any easier to understand.

"What?"

"I asked if you were in…" again, once more, she couldn't be heard.

"I can't hear you Yakumo-chan! Yell it out loud!" Naruto replied with a sigh, he *had* heard, perfectly well, as he *was* a damn good listener, but he actually wanted to be sure.

"DO YOU LIKE SOMEONE!" she yelled at him, before placing a hand on her mouth, but too late, since probably that question had probably been heard all the way into the ground.

"No," Naruto replied, "And I won't until everything is settled," he added.

Strangely, that lifted the spirits of the two Konoha's Kunoichi, while Shoko muttered something about *frigid* attitude, and Mabui said nothing, as she had already sent her daily report to the Raikage. The voyage kept being silent, as they didn't even make any breaks, since Kuro could actually stay afloat with minimum energies, once he reached a high enough altitude to let the winds do the rest. In the end everyone ended up being tied by Naruto's snakes, since they used chakra to stand atop Kuro's body, and it had begun getting its toll on them after a couple of days.

"You should be thankful *I* need to eat but a few time a year," Kuro hissed, "and that I'm as kind as kind can be, really, one day, when I'll be gone, your children's children will spun the tale of how nice and awesome Kuro was, and of how utterly an ass his summoner instead had to be," as she sarcastically spoke, without spite, Naruto couldn't help but chuckle slightly.

"I concur with Kuro-san!" Shoko yelled, since she *was* being held by anacondas to her spot, "I say we could take a break, you know, doing *some* stuff in mid-air is…"

"Oh right! Yakumo-chan," Naruto said, pointing at the Kurama clan heir, "Please, do imagine that there's a bathroom on Kuro's tail, following him, so everyone who needs to go can take a turn," as he finished saying that, Sakura gritted her teeth.

Mabui said nothing, rolling her eyes as she saw Yakumo's face turning red, while Shoko's face was simply pale.

"You…You…YOU HENTAI!" but being kept into place by the anacondas, she couldn't do much else.

*Weeks later-Land of Wind desert*

"I can't believe it…land," Shoko whispered, getting on her knees on the dry nearly white sand of the desert, going as far as kissing and caressing it, while Sakura, much to her same line of thought, moved closer to Naruto, cracking her knuckles with an angry face, while Yakumo simply stood embarrassed, not knowing, precisely, what to say. Mabui on the other hand stood very still, thankful that her *skill* could also help her empty certain…internal compounds, elsewhere.

"See? Sunagakure is just a couple of days of travel more, instead of two months it only took us a month and half!" as Naruto gleefully said that, the pink-haired Kunoichi from Konoha could but narrow her eyes, hissing in a way that made Kuro sort of proud.

"Tell your snakes not to bite me, while I hit you repeatedly."

"I do not have a death wish, Sakura-chan," Naruto replied, with a small chuckle, before slowly tensing up, "and we have company," he added, as his face slowly changed, Hikari and Yami sprouting from his side in puffs of smoke, while Kuro dispersed, as he did need some rest, after all.

"Boss," both Yami and Hikari hissed, "you should call us more often in warm places," they slowly added, "we like this," as they finished their sort of together-talk, they blinked at each other, before shaking their head, and merging with Naruto, just as he assumed on the aspect of Toruna, scales covering his cheeks and his eyes for a second flashing a dark red hue, before becoming dark blue.

"What are you doing trespassing on Suna's territory!" The voice was snappish, and it belonged to a woman with spiky ponytailed hair, that held a giant metal fan on her back, and smaller one on her hips, while behind her stood three other chuunin level ninjas from Suna, all eying the company of half Konoha and half Kumo shinobis, led by a single man.

"I am Toruna of the snakes, tracker of the Iron Lands…and I need to speak with your Ichibi Jinchuuriki," as he pointed that out, grabbing from the insides of his jacket the Iron Land's symbol, Temari slightly tensed at the man.

"What prove do you have that…" Toruna was behind her in but an instant, snakes mouth open and fangs trickling venom surrounding the entire team of Suna's ninjas, and nobody, none of them, had seen him get in position.

"The fact that I could kill you, and not have to bother lying," the snakes retracted just as they had emerged, and Temari slowly let a drop of sweat fall from her forehead, not due to the heat of the desert's sun, clearly.

"Why the Kunoichis?" she queried, as she turned around, this time, however, everyone had already a hand on their weapons.

"They were chosen by their respective Kages, to co-participate in my hunt," the man replied, slowly, "My hunt for the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki," he added.

"The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki? Didn't the last one die, last I recall?" Temari queried, perplexed.

"That he did," Toruna whispered, with a small grin, "but since the Kyuubi hasn't reappeared yet, it has been resealed, that is why we are looking forward to meeting with the Ichibi Jinchuuriki…a crime syndicate, called Akatsuki, is hunting down the Jinchuurikis and extracting their Bijuus, for some reason unknown…they might bring me the lead to where the Kyuubi is," he slowly added.

"Do you intend on using Gaara, the Kazekage, as bait?" Temari spat out, venomously, as she eyed the man shocked: she had to have misunderstood, clearly.

"Are you stupid?" Toruna queried, "Or maybe brain damaged?" a nervous tick mark appeared on Temari, as she gritted her teeth, "I said I want to speak with your Ichibi Jinchuuriki, so move your damn feet one after the other and bring us there, before I decide you need a medical checkup…and a colonoscopy," as he finished speaking, he sidestepped to the side, letting Temari's fist end in the air where his face would have been seconds before.

"Feisty one!" he chuckled out, as he seemed like a teacher laughing off a student's disgrace, "but no way you are going to hit me," as he moved out of the way again, avoiding a slap this time, "so stop this childish actions, and move," he finished, grabbing the girl's right hand with his left one, before starting to constrict, "or I *will* take action," as he whispered the final warning, Temari spat on the ground in front of the man's feet, before exclaiming.

"Fine! Follow me *Toruna*, can't believe you actually *were* an ass," she muttered thinking how one of her favorite authors was such a rude and crude bastard.

Sakura and Yakumo had said nothing at the scene, while Shoko was mentally pointing down that she had better teach the man some manners, since he had clearly lost them, somewhere. Mabui said nothing, keeping a cool face as she followed the rest of the Suna shinobis back to their hidden village.

"Is he that big of a bastard even with you?" One of the Suna's ninjas queried as they had left Temari take the honor of escorting Toruna, who seemed to take pride in watching at the girl's cleavage, or back, whenever she *could* actually see him. Sakura knew he wasn't doing it because he was a pervert, but because he wanted to pass out as one. It was strange. He could pass from one mask to another so swiftly, that it seemed he had readied himself for any situation. She could feel it, actually, this sort of impalpable aura surrounding the man, it was like his chakra rolled off all around his figure, making him appear more menacing, and majestic, then he should normally be.

"Even worst," Shoko muttered, "You won't believe what he had us do, to get here in less than two months from Kumo," she whined, "we showered with the rain!" considering they were pretty much a few meters away from the raining clouds, it was actually like taking a shower, with the risk of being electrocuted, that was.

"What? I just can't believe it!" the only Kunoichi of the Suna team, that was, excluding Temari, gasped at that, the man was clearly a pervert, with a Kunoichi only team…he had to be taking peeks every moment!

"He was hard pressed," Yakumo whispered, trying to come up with some defense, albeit she *was* angry at him, "Akatsuki risks attacking and then going into hiding again…we simply must find a lead to the Kyuubi," she knew full well, as did Sakura, that the missions wouldn't have ended for them until the Kyuubi would be found…and the Jinchuuriki returned to Kumo.

"So the Kazekage is risking his life while we're here talking!" the Kunoichi from the Suna team exclaimed, worried.

"Calm down Matsuri!" Temari snapped back at the girl, "The Kazekage wouldn't be defeated by a mere criminal organization," she added, slowly, "and he's in the village, protected by the very best shinobis of the land of wind, what could go wrong?"

*Sunagakure*

"Art is an explosion! KATSU!" a man, wearing a black robe with red clouds trimmed in white, stood perched atop a flying clay bird, letting smaller versions of the animal fly and explode around the village, as Gaara stood on a rooftop, nearby, silently watching the scene. The man had blond hair, tied in a half ponytail, while the other half was covering the left side of his face. Behind Gaara, *Saki* stood in wait, Tanto in her right hand, and staring at the scene of the man bombing Sunagakure, without the Ichibi intervening in stopping him.

"Shouldn't you stop him?" Saki queried, staring at the man.

"The village is being evacuated," Gaara replied, "I see no reason to give away my position, until I can get him in range," he slowly added.

"Would you like me to bring him in range?" Saki asked again, as another building crumbled down due to a clay bird exploding straight against it.

"If you wish," he added, as Saki nodded and jumped down from the rooftop she had been on, before dashing in the direction of the man in question. She slowly opened a sealing scroll, extracting from it a crossbow, before running back up another house's wall and aiming the bolt with deadly precision, she let it fling at the man, while yelling:

"Katon: Endan!" the bolt dashed, soon surrounded by the flames, as the man wearing the cloud robes, saw the fire arrive, and threw from his hand a small clay bird, that suddenly sprouted bigger, taking head-on the fire and exploding in a bigger blast, deflecting the bolt altogether with the fire technique, that was meant to hide the bolt from the attacker, and had instead prevented the attack altogether.

"My! Finally somebody wishes to fight me!" the man exclaimed, as he saw the figure on the house's roof, "I though the village was a ghost one!"

Saki said nothing, as she jumped backwards, avoiding smaller clay-like sculptures, that blew up every time the man said *Katsu!*.

She placed another bolt in the crossbow, before firing it again, this time while yelling something else, entirely.

"Katon: Gōenka!" as three fire bullets sprouted from the woman's mouth, they dashed off in different directions, all towards the sky, passing by Deidara who didn't even care to stop them, as they clearly were out of trajectory, while he conjured from his left hand-mouth a clay shield, to block the bolt, before molding it into another bird, and sending it downwards, once more.

"I'm growing bored little girl!" Deidara exclaimed, as he saw her jumping backwards, unleashing a single fire stream to make his creation explode before reaching her, but forcing her to lose her footing on the roof, and fall downwards, on the dirt road and into an alleyway, "No running from the great artist Deidara!" as the man yelled that, following her, he gasped, jumping away from his clay bird, as the three fire balls that had missed him, came back from high above, falling where his bird was, but not him.

"Well, now I ain't bored anymore!" He exclaimed, "But art…Art is an explosion!" as he used both his hand-mouths to munch onto the clay in his satchel, another one of those flying clay birds appeared under him, making him safe from falling once more.

But this time…he was in range of Gaara's sand, which suddenly lurched forward, in the form of a hand, slamming the man like a gnat onto the ground, or at least…thinking he had done that, as man and bird exploded altogether, scattering the Kazekage's sand, that slowly reformed, but not before Deidara, the real one, not the clay clone he had used, dashed forward from his hiding spot, atop another clay bird, while dropping some sort of deformed statuette, yelling:

"Shī Surī!" as it increased in size, falling downwards straight where Gaara was, the Akatsuki member exclaimed, "Look master Sasori! ART IS AN EXPLOSION! KATSU!" and with those words, Gaara had barely the time to try and use sand to have it explode upwards, in truth not thinking it would have been wiser to use it around himself…a misunderstanding that cost him gravely, as while it deadened the explosion, effectively saving a good chunk of the city from being pulverized, since it was centered on Gaara's location it brought the building, and him, down as the concussive force of the blast was big enough to send him all the way till ground-level.

Saki was thrown by the explosion to the side, however, her body hitting against the hard rock of a wall, before said wall came crashing down on her, all five floors of building following him swiftly, and leaving her in the dark, cramped, wounded, in the dark…but alive, albeit every breath she did take seemed to shot forward more pain than was needed.

**Did you take the number of that train?**

_Train? What is a train?_

**I saw one in the land of frost once, with your father, you know. **The Kyuubi chuckled silently, as she had found a way to actually have the girl pend from her lips…at least, for the most part Danzo had done it all, him and his Root training. If you gave the kids something important, claiming it was their only possession, like drawing utensils, charms or even the necklace, and then menaced removing them if they failed in training…you made them strive for perfection.

_You knew my father all this time, and told me nothing? You're lying._

**I told you I saw him getting trashed to the side of the hospital, didn't I? **

_Yes, but you told me it came from your Yin chakra's memory…_

**Well, you see, I was split in half, before, but then I was reunited in one…and your father held my other half. **

_And you told me nothing till now!_

**Why should I? You were just not good enough to know…and you still are.**

_Who's my mother then? Huh? _

The Kyuubi…the Kyuubi actually snorted at that, really, god worked in mysterious ways… since he gave the perfect answer to that…

**A certain Mitarashi Anko, of course!**

Somewhere, a purple haired kunoichi sneezed, as she kept on lashing out about *not toying with Toruna-san's underwear!* to a certain Shizuka, who seemed more keen on actually doing the laundry, than *toying around*.

_Mitarashi…Anko? Is she my mother?_ Saki said nothing, as she stared at the darkness in the encroached space she was in. She clearly had failed Danzo-sama in protecting Gaara. Could she really go back to Root? They'd take her necklace away! But Root was her only home, so she had nowhere else to go…

**I beg to differ, **the Kyuubi whispered, **such a grown-up girl could do wonders…let's say, if you remove the seal from my cage, I'll leave and I'll tell you where your mother is!**

_Removing the seal would kill me. No. You're lying to me, I will *not* listen to you any longer._

She had more than enough, a name at least…now she just needed a face, maybe she could go and check in the Root library, during one of her future missions…after getting punished?

Other minors explosions occurred, as Deidara, having removed much of Gaara's sand, could finally weaken the Ichibi Jinchuuriki enough to make him faint, and then flying downwards to grab him, and fly back to where his teammate was waiting for him.

"Sasori-san! Art is but a second! Look! I got him!" as Deidara got to the side of Sasori, a bent over puppet, the man croaked back as he began to move.

"Let's move to the hide-out, stupid. Art is something that remains forever, like puppets."

"No, it's an explosion of a second," Deidara snapped back.

"Lasts forever."

"A second."

"Forever."

"Second."

Snapping remarks and comments, they both walked towards the horizon, and just as the Suna's ninjas managed to reach the gates, traps previously left by Sasori went off with but a simple chakra thread being cut loose, and poisonous gasses and explosions stopped their pursuers.

*Kumogakure's prison*

Karin stood, her hands shackled to her feet, trying to decide wherever to kill the man or not. Toruna of the snakes was a bastard, that much was sure, but he was also hot. He was a hot bastard, with a kind smile and a wonderful attitude. He was also extremely arrogant and conceited.

"But he's so hot," she said to herself, her cheeks turning red, "but also so much a bastard!" she spit out to an image of Toruna, etched with the border of her manacles on the prison's walls.

"You're so hot," She said again, licking one of the etched Toruna's cheek, "but you shouldn't have left me here, alone!" she whined once more, hitting the etched face with a kick.

"You say you're going to kill Kabuto and protect me from Orochimaru huh? Is being in prison protection!" she ranted, before blushing furiously, "If I were," a small giggle, "protected by your body," another small giggle as blood dripped from her nose, "I'd be…safer…ah…I love you my darling!" she whispered, kissing and salivating on the wall.

The guard stationed outside made the *wacko* gesture to his colleague, pointing at the woman in the cell.

His colleague shrugged, before pointing at his own one.

Tightly strapped to a Hannibal-like containment chair, with ball-gag to prevent talking, Tayuya of the sound four stood fuming of anger. She wanted so badly to swear it wasn't even funny anymore. Not that it was funny in the beginning, but really, she felt the need, the desperate need, to have someone come over and simply kill her. Since having been captured, the Toad Sage had placed her cursed seal under check, and had then proceeded to do *research* by tickling her body with feathers, and asking her questions she couldn't obviously answer, as she had been gagged. He was basically torturing her for information, she was sure of it, but still, couldn't he go ask the red-haired Karin, who seemed to be torn between making babies with the man that had defeated them right then, or making more babies later on?

She on the other hand was going to stick her Dokis straight through Toruna's ass the next time she'd meet him. She was sure of it.

"Well, I'll just have to go and offer Toruna's underwear to Karin-chan," Jiraiya said in a bit of a loud voice, so much that Karin actually picked that up, starting to froth at the lust literally coming out of her body.

"Mine! It's mine!" she yelled starting to head butt her cell's door.

Just as Jiraiya waved goodbye to Tayuya, opening Karin's cell, he suddenly got bitten by the red-haired girl on his ankle, and the next moment, he fell to the side, paralyzed, as Karin launched herself forward rolling straight into Tayuya's cell before the other two guards could react, and with a quick movement of the head, tore down her mouth gag, letting the girl's weapon finally come in hand.

Tayuya whistled, and as the melody rang into the guard's ears, their eyes slowly turned empty, as they moved, like zombies, to untie her, all the while Jiraiya tried to regain his bearings, the poison in his body being nothing more than…poisonous chakra?

"My chakra is pretty special, Jiji," Karin said in a teasing tone, as the guards unshackled her, "It can heal and it can poison!" and with that, once Tayuya was freed too, the pink-haired woman whistled to summon her Doki, that broke through the cell's walls and brought the two Oto-nins directly on the outside, from where they jumped downwards, swiftly descending the prison's walls, as they escaped towards the border.

"I need a flute if I want them to be stronger," Tayuya muttered, as the doki she had summoned had barely done her work, and was half ethereal too, "and the seal is preventing my curse form from taking place."

"I'm sure we can come up with something once we report back to Orochimaru-sama," Karin replied, as they left the city seemingly with little confrontations.

As Jiraiya stood back up, taking a deep breath for air, he looked with a sort of gleeful and cheerful look at a parchment, on which a bright pink dot was moving…being it a compass that directed him towards where he had place his seal on the girl's neck…a perfect work.

Next to him, Anko stared at the paper with a grin…

"So the two little mice took the bait…let's get ready to roll some Orochimaru-teme's ass!"

"Yes, they'll take us to him, and then…" Jiraiya whispered, his tone kind of sorrowful, "I will kill my ex-teammate," he added, slowly.

*Orochimaru's hidden place*

"I need more power!" Sasuke snarled, as his chidori, for the thirteenth time, destroyed through a platoon of Otogakure ninjas, his *training partners* nothing more than flesh bags to break and destroy.

"A pity Kimimaro died last year," Sakon muttered, as he stared at Sasuke's fight, "he'd teach the Uchiha," the word spat with venom, "some humility," he slowly added.

"I think we could teach him a lesson, altogether," Kidomaru replied, his arms, all of them, crossed over his chest.

"Let him sort out the weak trash before though," Jirobo replied, as he snacked upon a chunk of ham, taken from only he knew where.

"I think Orochimaru-sama would be displeased if we taught the boy too hard," Ukon mulled over the thought, before snoozing off to sleep once more.

As the three, or four, sound team members stood on a small hill, watching the Uchiha fight, Kabuto moved closer to them from the hidden training ground, pointing at Sasuke.

"He shouldn't kill them…I'm losing test subjects every time he does that," the medic-nin pointed out, "though, since I'm speaking of test subjects…I'd like you to retrieve a couple," he added, "so we don't have to disturb the Uchiha's training."

"I would never have thought the day would have come…thank you, Kabuto," Sakon actually said, grabbing the scroll with their mission…anywhere was better than being there.

Just as they left, Kabuto moved closer to Sasuke, who had just finished killing the last *training partner*.

"Might I ask you why you're killing them?" Kabuto queried, curious.

"I need to get stronger! He is stronger than me!" Sasuke screeched, plunging his katana deep in the ground, breathing raggedly.

"He who, Toruna of the snakes?" Kabuto queried, once more, the Uchiha had come back utterly flabbergasted by his defeat by the hands of Toruna.

"HIM! If he hadn't been distracted…if I hadn't been stopped…if He hadn't come…"

"He who?" Kabuto was starting to think that to get the entire version out of the boy's mind, he'd have to drug him.

"The fourth Hokage! HE came through and knocked me out! I need to defeat him!" In Sasuke's mind, he had come to the decision that Toruna was Toruna, and that Sumire, simply gone mad over the fact that she had seen the man use techniques similar to theirs, had started to think he was Naruto. Naruto was dead, clearly dead, and would stay dead, because Naruto was weak and he, last of the Uchiha, was strong.

"Well, Orochimaru-sama wishes to impart you with some more jutsus to learn…if you would follow me," as Kabuto turned around, Sasuke grabbed his katana, following the man. He had to get stronger…that he had to.

*Amegakure-Same time*

Minato opened the orphanage's door, in the middle of the morning, bringing by her small hand a red-haired girl, whose blue eyes resembled his, and just as Kushina had gone to the door, to query who it was, she had stopped on her tracks, her mouth agape, in wonder…it couldn't be…

"Kushina-hime…look who I found during my travels! I convinced her to come back…" and with that, Katsumi-chan, recalling her really horrible experiences with Orochimaru-sama, and how she hated him and wanted him dead, and also how she really loved her Kaa-san and Otou-san, and knew that Naruto was dead, well, she did what every child would do in seeing their mother after three long years…

"KAA-SAN! I'M HOME!"

*Sunagakure-Arriving*

Toruna rolled his eyes over, seeing the destruction that had taken place in the area.

Temari, on the other hand, didn't keep her cool at all, running inside the half destroyed village, searching for Gaara.

"Sakura, Yakumo, help the villagers, Mabui, warn the Raikage, Shoko, ask around for a description of the attackers," as Toruna gave his orders, he slowly let his hand touch the ground, closing off all noises, even Shoko's whining, as he let a pulse of sage chakra reveal to him the ground itself. The sand whispered to him its place, and those who treaded upon it, it whispered the words of those who were trapped under buildings, and of those who needed help, it told him of the chakra levels around him, of medium and small…and of a big one.

The big one wasn't on his level, but nearly…nearly the double.

Someone had double amount of his chakra.

He slowly opened his eyes, disappearing in a flicker of smoke, as he realized that under an entire building, stood probably the source of so much chakra that it made him flinch, as he decided to take his chances.

"Taju Kage Bunshins!" as he roared that, thousands of his clones dashed out to remove the wreckages, as nobody had yet taken care of that area of the city, already considered evacuated.

**Your father, you know, had wonderful blue eyes and blond hair.**

_You know I'm not going to remove the seal, _Saki mentally thought, as she could feel the ground around her creak and tremble. How long had she been underneath all the rubble? She was physically fine now, her regeneration having healed her of all her wounds…but she was still under tons of weight, that wouldn't disappear magically in an hour.

**He also had whisker marks, a bright smile, and if you really want to know…**

_I don't want to know._

**Well, anyway, he was also a snake fanatic, what he found in those scales I don't know, but anyway, he was the previous Jinchuuriki, and he was killed by Minato, and you well…you were brought back to Danzo…actually, Danzo killed your father!**

_You're lying, and I ain't listening!_

**Oh you damn brat. Not everything *I* say are lies! Like procreation, you know…**

Saki winced in pain as she placed her hands over her ears, ignoring or at least trying to ignore the voice, as the rubble, slowly, gave away…to reveal a face with dark blue eyes, and blond but red-stained hair, with snake scales on his chins and staring at the woman in front of him with a puzzled look.

"You alright?" he queried, slowly opening the hole until he could get to her, using snakes that sprouted from his forearms to gently wrap her and bring her up, into his arms, to carry her down bridal style, albeit *she* could walk, she just felt…safe?

"I am Toruna of the snakes miss, and you are?" he queried, with a small smile.

"…Saki," she replied, blushing slightly.

"Well…Saki-chan," the man said again, gently easing her to sit on a pile of rubble nearby, "Are you alright? It's a miracle you're unscathed, after taking an entire building on you," he whispered gently, looking at her with a clinical eye, he actually seemed to be worried about her.

"I…I'm pretty tough," she replied, her right hand fidgeting with her hair, "and I heal really fast, you know," she added, in a sort of childish tone.

"I see…well, did you see who attacked the village?" the man queried once more, smiling gently.

"Yes! He called himself…Deidara, and he yelled to a certain Sasori…before he destroyed the village with a sort of…bomb, that looked like made of clay!" she replied, hoping to be helpful to the man, who mused over the girl's words, before slightly touching his own left hand, and making, in a puff of smoke, a Bingo Book appear.

"These two?" he queried, pointing at the blond man that had attacked her and at a strange guy whose photo seemed to have been taken from far away.

"Yes! The first one…the second one wasn't there," she replied, shaking her head.

"Well Saki-chan, you've been really useful, so I want to give you a gift, to help you forget this shocking experience," as he said that, the man, Toruna, slowly got out from his sleeve a small Green-Jade snake earring, smiling as he gently placed it on her right ear.

"Here you go, with this, you look even prettier," as he finished speaking, Saki blushed, as Toruna stood up, stretching, before turning to leave.

**DON'T LET HIM LEAVE!** The Kyuubi roared in her head, making her gasp, why did she seem so?

**THE EARRING! I KNOW! IT'S HIM! **

_Him who?_ She queried, worriedly.

**YOUR FATHER IS ALIVE! TELL HIM WHO YOU ARE! IT'S HIM! **at that, the woman gasped, in shock, seeing the man, with the mantle with the Kanji for *Sage* on the back, slowly move towards another girl who seemed to have a Kumo headband on, speaking to her, was that really…could that really be?

No, the Kyuubi had to be lying, as always…he didn't even look like the description! There was clearly no way he was the same person…no way. Still, she gently touched the earring…could he really be? She slowly got up, moving closer to the man who, feeling her walk towards him, turned around once more, raising an eyebrow.

"Do you…know…hum…a certain, Anko-san?" as she queried that, the man's eyes narrowed slowly.

"What if I do?" he slowly hissed, Toruna already thinking the woman in question was the seven-tailed Jinchuuriki, or a tailed beast of her own…he wasn't thinking she actually was the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, as the baby wouldn't be more than three years old, by the time…

"I…I'm her daughter," she whispered, hesitantly, as the man's eyes scanned her, like one who tries to see some resemblance.

"You've got blond hair," he pointed out, "Anko's is…"

"Purple?" she replied, slowly showing the root of her hair to the man, who clearly, saw with shock how it was, indeed, purple, and the blond hair was just being dyed.

Toruna looked the girl over again. Anko was probably twenty-seven, maybe. She could have had a child at fourteen, but then, she'd be thirteen years old, not *a woman* at all, maybe at eleven? That would be going hand in hand with prison, even if she had churned one out immediately after getting a headband, that would still mean she would have a sixteen years old girl…this girl here looked on her twenties…still, there *was* some resemblance, if one took into account the bright hazel eyes they were bordering with light brown of Anko's…and there was the father to take into account, whoever he was.

"So…who would…" he didn't finish the sentence, because the woman actually started crying, looking at him, before whispering…

"Otou-san, you're alive," and with that, she grabbed a hold of Toruna's body, hugging him tightly, as the snakes tried to dash forward and bite her, but were taken aback by a small hiss from their boss.

Toruna slowly, but calmly, let the woman cry on his chest. It was some sort of purification procedure: it seemed, for the woman side.

Still, a plan clinked in his mind.

He had no idea what was going on, but he could pretty much bet someone had told a Jinchuuriki Anko and him were her parents. This meant it could be, by some strange reason, Takigakure and the seven tails, *or* it could be someone else entirely…but why? It could be a trap, but then, why tie Toruna to Anko? Who could do said linking?

Who could, actually, tell such a lie to a woman?

_Kyuubi_, _it has to be the Kyuubi...but then…she'd be…how can it…Hero's water!_ Toruna's eyes bulged in shock, so Minato had used the same method he had been forced into, and that he had so stupidly told around without hiding it, and that had resulted in *this*…the Kyuubi had been lying to the girl, probably making her believe the old, and presumed dead, Jinchuuriki was killed by Minato, so she'd have her revenge on the man. Still, if she was there, where was the Fourth?

"Where have you been till now…daughter?" he queried, worriedly looking into the eyes of the woman in front of him, who, silently, opened her tongue.

A cursed seal stood on her tongue, one that Toruna in his life knew full well, having seen it a lot of time, in his young life.

A cursed…Root seal.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock…before narrowing down in pure hatred and anger as his very own blood began to boil, the earth trembling just slightly as the chakra around him began to lash out in sparks and small air waves, as he slowly, but surely, hug the woman tightly.

"Do not worry, my daughter," he whispered to her, "I'll save you."

**Author's notes**

**My mouse's left button kicked the bucket just as I neared the finish line…poor button.**

**General answering questions:  
Actually, Shizuka is a bit of an Au of her own.**

**The basic line is the same, but instead of Jiraiya peeping in the nadeshiko's village springs, it was a young Mifune on a training trip, meeting and fighting off Shizuka's mother. Then they married, and thus Mifune's daughter was a perfectly suitable candidate for Toruna!**

**On another note: Seals keep people sane! Long live the Seals! And the memory *wipe* is actually a memory *lock* and a memory *alteration* thing. He's not a Yamanaka, the fourth…a bastard, maybe, but not a mind-raper…not yet, anyway, so when Katsumi thinks that, it's basically Minato locking away everything else to better *push* those thoughts. So out of an entire three years with Orochimaru, only the things she hated of him have remained, making it easier to understand *why* she left him for her *lovingly* father and mother.**

**On another note:**

**Yes, the Kyuubi outright lied with bullshits to Saki. Who, being a three-years old (albeit more mature for her time) *still* has the quirks of a young girl. Though the Kyuubi didn't actually believe the *man* was near. For the earrings, it was Toruna's fault for keeping it always the same. His idea being of knowing where another Jinchuuriki was to better track down Akatsuki. Now…he's in a bit of an emotional hurricane.**

**Tobi works from the shadows, and will probably pop out sometime…when you least expect it.**

**And I just realized how many characters in Naruto have absolutely no long-range jutsus. I mean, flying enemies? You'd better have wind affinity and fire affinity or you're screwed.**

**Danzo…Danzo simply outright didn't include the *Kyuubi* factor in his mind-washing equation. Resulting in a girl who actually gets to speak with an overly sarcastic demon fox who *knows*what nerves to touch. **

**On a side note: Danzo *sealed* the Kyuubi more, in regards to what the Fourth did. So the red-chakra will take *far* more emotional stress to come out. (You already got this hint, damn I'm too evil for my good self) **


	25. SH: Solving

Twenty-fifth Chapter

Shoko knew what fear was. It wasn't something extraneous to the young girl, albeit she hid it well under her mask of bouts of anger and loud yelling, she knew what fear was. She felt it deeply when she was young and afraid of the dark, then she grew to defeat that fear, and earn others, like the loss of her loved ones to dangerous missions, since hers was a family of Kumo shinobi from their very own great grandfather's times, and finally she knew fear in front of extremely overwhelming forces. Like in that precise, single, moment, in which Naruto, the quiet boy of the class, who was always eager to help, and who had that serious yet cheerful attitude about him, had hugged the girl. She felt fear, because the man, he no longer was a kid, both physically, but also mentally, that much, his eyes gave away, that man, that Toruna of the snakes man or even deeper down, Naruto, he made a connection with the woman he was hugging. It wasn't a mere hug, a mere *alright hug*, or something out of instinct. She could feel the feelings rolling off in thick waves from the man in question, feelings that were a mixture of anger, utter hatred and worst of all, the power to back it all up, mixed with feelings of actually wanting to protect the woman, as a few shinobis of Suna who had stopped to witness the scene had all ran away for their dear lives, when his gaze lingered on any of them, a gaze that made it pretty clear, what he was thinking about.

_She is mine._ Not the *mine* of a tool, an object, a thing, not the *mine* of a lover, or a girlfriend, or a fiancé, the *mine*, the very same *mine* that a pack of wolves gives to intruders upon their cubs, the very same *mine* that has gorilla protect their younglings, the very same *mine* that makes fathers chop down the will of any pretender to their daughter's hand. It was that *mine*, only it was coated with such a dense killer intent that even Shoko, not being subjected to it, wanted to leave. In truth, even the wind was against letting anyone closer, as small breezes that seemed charged with the dry air of the desert blew in all directions around the two, but not towards them, always against those who might have wanted to go near.

Shoko didn't say a word, as she was pretty sure anything she'd say would probably warrant her that gaze, and she didn't want to feel what it meant having *that* gaze on her skin, was that how mice felt when a snake was about to pounce at them? When they stay still and wait, staring wide eyed at their predator? Silently, she waited.

"Otou-san?" Saki queried, slowly drying off her tears with the back of her right hand, as she watched with her hazel eyes the face of her father, of who she believed was her father, and as she looked into that face, a face that stared back at her with a small smile. It was warm, far warmer than anything she had ever seen before, always porcelain masks or wooden masks or metal masks, or frowns from Danzo-sama or the emotionless face of Sai, or even that of Tree. It was hers too. That smile was for her, it wasn't for anyone else, but for her, towards her.

"Yes, Saki-chan?" he replied, letting her go from his hug, to cross his arms over his body, staring at the girl in silent waiting.

"I…" she mumbled, at a loss of words, as she didn't know *what* exactly to say.

_I just want to know where you were till now, what you were doing, if you were looking for me, if you can really save me, I just…I've got a lot of questions!_

**Why don't you tell him about you being my Jinchuuriki? Tell him, come on!**

Saki's face turned to pain, for a second. Danzo-sama had told her that Jinchuurikis were hated by everyone, except Root. If she told her father, would he hate her? Would he shun her? She couldn't…

"I know you can't talk, right now," Toruna whispered back, slowly ruffling the woman's hair, who assumed a pouted face like that of children, who actually dislike having their hair ruffled, "but know this…I went through your same ordeals…and I know how to remove one of our problems, at least, the first one," as he finished speaking, he encircled her shoulders with his right arm, turning to Shoko, who had no idea what was going on, and waving at her to come closer, he said.

"Shoko-chan, get the others and have them start looking around for anything that might link to the attackers, a piece of clothing would do just fine too, I'll be back in a while, two hours tops," and with that, before Shoko could say anything, he was already gone, together with the purple haired woman.

Shoko, looking perplexed, and not exactly knowing how to take the news that one boy, her age, had a daughter that seemed older than her, decided *not* to think about it, and went looking for Mabui, at least she could make a report go directly to the Raikage.

Mabui wasn't far away, actually having just finished sending a report about the situation, after having been informed from a certain Baki, when Shoko simply dashed right next to her, agitated.

"Na…Captain! The Captain went away for a while together with a strange woman that said to be his daughter! They're…gone I don't know where! He said to look around for anything at all that might link to one of the two attackers…to track by smell probably," she replied, churning out all she had been told to say quickly, as she wanted to find where Sakura and Yakumo had gone, "He'll be back in a couple of hours maybe! I'll be looking for the two Konoha-Nins now!" and with that, she dashed off once more, leaving the silver-haired woman with a perplexed expression, before Mabui turned her green gaze to Baki.

"So…these Honored Siblings…can they help?" as the Jounin from Suna nodded, he replied with a stern tone.

"Yes, I heard from the attacker his call to *master Sasori*, and Sasori of the red sand is well acquainted," his tone for a brief second flashed nervousness, "with the Honored Siblings of Sunagakure, so they would definitively be able to help," he slowly added.

"Very well, I will add in the report how helpful you were, Baki-san," as Mabui made a polite gesture of slightly bowing her head, the man in question dismissed it with a wave of his right hand.

"There's no need, we are between soon to be, if not already, allies," as he finished the sentence, he turned to guide the woman to where the Honorable Siblings were, atop a small hill nestled inside Sunagakure's outskirts, that required a small amount of fatigue to reach, since the rocky steps to climb had nearly been completely swiped out by the strong wind that blew against them, throwing sand on their faces as they advanced.

"They personally…chose the spot," Baki muttered, clearly hinting at where his thoughts were going, about elderly people and their seemingly natural sixth sense for choosing places difficult to reach as their homes.

"I suppose we couldn't have them descend, right?" Mabui replied with her eyes slightly narrowed down, as she tried her best not to let the sand get into her mouth.

After a couple of minutes, they finally reached the point where the wind was no longer aiming to make them into sand statues, and once there, Mabui saw two elderly persons sitting, one in front of the other, with fishing rods in hand, fishing from a pool between them, that clearly had no fishes, as it wasn't anything more than a rain water basin.

"Honorable siblings?" Baki queried, as they both seemed to have been sleeping in that position since a good while, having sand on both their shoulders.

"Huh?" the man out of the two woke slightly, before turning his eyes to the Jounin, and then towards his sister.

"Chiyo-chan," he said slowly, "There's little Baki-kun here," he added, making the clearly out of his prime, angry and stern looking Baki cough in embarrassment at the usage of the *kun*.

"Chiyo-chan?" The man said again, "you can't die now…or feign to," he added slowly, as the old woman sighed, opening her eyes before exclaiming with a childish attitude.

"You got me!" as she stuck out her tongue, before turning to the two, "Well, what's this? A Kumo Kunoichi? Is it Baki-kun's fiancé?" she queried in a teasing tone.

"Please honorable siblings!" Baki exclaimed rolling his eyes, "This is serious! The Kazekage has been kidnapped two days ago!"

"We are too old for that," Chiyo replied, "Just have some Jounin do it," she slowly added.

"A certain Sasori might have been implied in the kidnapping," Mabui pointed out, seeing the old woman stiffen for a moment, before completely opening her eyes in a serious gaze to the dark skinned Kumogakure ninja.

"I see…but I lack understanding of why a Kumo ninja would help out? But mostly…of how you could reach Suna in so little time?" she queried.

"We were meant to come here to speak with the Kazekage, as we are actually looking for his kidnappers: Akatsuki, a criminal organization that extracts Bijuus from their hosts, albeit the reason is unclear as of yet," Mabui explained slowly, "we are on this track since Toruna of the Snakes," the name did make Chiyo flinch, since she had one little book, with a black cover and with etchings of snakes, in her closet, "is searching for the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, that because of agreements has to be returned to Kumogakure. Even Konoha has lent a hand with two Kunoichis," she pointed that out, before adding, "and since we need information from Akatsuki's members, we are cooperating to rescue the Kazekage."

"Where is Toruna-san, then?" Chiyo queried, curious as to why the leader of a tracking group wouldn't be talking to her in person.

"He is…busy, somewhere else. He has means to travel great lengths without problem, I suspect he found something…interesting," she replied neutrally.

"I see…very well, I will tell you about Sasori…but on one condition," as Chiyo pointed that out, raising her right hand index finger, Mabui raised an eyebrow, in wait for the elder woman's condition to be spoken out, "I wish to partake in the rescue of the Kazekage."

"That much can be arranged with Toruna-san," Mabui replied with a nod, "He should have no reason to refuse," she slowly added.

"Then I'll wait for him to…" the man, Toruna of the snakes, appeared right next to Mabui, alone, and slowly mimicking dusting sand off his shoulders.

"Here I am," he replied with a small grin, "and I heard it all, so yes, we have a deal. Now if you'll excuse me, the real me is busy elsewhere," and with that, he dispersed, having been nothing more than a Kage Bunshin.

"…just how…" Mabui muttered, before slowly touching her earring…was it also some sort of…transmitter?

"ahah! I like the man already!" Chiyo exclaimed, while Baki was actually thinking how rude he had been to appear, not even in *real* person, and then disappear soon afterwards.

*Naruto*

He carefully looked at the cursed seal over the woman's tongue, before shaking his head. Complicated stuff, intricate and even majestically placed, to say the least. Nothing less from Danzo, who was one of the few Fuinjutsu masters actually worthy of the title. Everyone could write seals, fancy seals, wonderful seals, even working ones, but had they real style? Seals were meant to be practical, and direct, they had to strike true to the point. The more simple the commands the more difficult it was to bypass them, especially when it coupled with extremely harsh consequences. Furthermore there had to at least be five more seals, on her body, or even in her insides, to say the least, that acted as back-ups and were ready to roll in the moment the one on her tongue went off. Truly, that was style.

Hakuja eyed the woman in his throne room, for once not caring about the fact he was losing the Shogi match, and after a slightly blinking motion, slowly moved his head directly above that of the thinking Naruto, while the woman in question stared at him, with her mouth agape, surprised, more than afraid.

Her hazel eyes met his own, and for a second, Hakuja felt that he was staring at a small kid, no more than four, that was sitting on the rock floor doing nothing but staring upwards in a kind of cute way…but it was only for a second, as he dismissed said issue, to slowly return to his Shogi match.

"Saki-chan," Naruto whispered to the woman, slowly letting his sage mode slip out, with Hikari and Yami sprouting from his forearms, as they were no longer needed to gather the sage chakra, "I need you to trust me, alright?" he queried gently, raising his right hand to calmly encircle her left forearm, without strength, nor meaning harm.

"Hai Otou-san!" she replied nodding, at least, she knew she had to be a good girl, her *mother*used to tell her that good girls were always loved, while *bad* girls became worthless tools to be destroyed.

"Good, come with me while…" at that moment, Kuro's blue eyes appeared on his upwards vision, as his own black head was standing above Naruto's, staring at the woman with a small grin.

"Otou-san, huh?" he pointed that out, as he looked at the woman, "Care to introduce us?" he slowly added, not wanting to slip up in backing Naruto's claims, no matter what, the boy had a reason for that.

"Saki-chan, this is Kuro, my best friend," Naruto said, pointing at the giant black snake with blue eyes that made Saki wonder if all snakes had really beautiful eyes like her Otou-san, "and Kuro, this is my and Anko's daughter, the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki Saki-chan…who can't speak of where she was, because of what Danzo," gritting his teeth, the ground underneath him cracked just so slightly, making Kuro narrow his gaze, "did…and he gave his word too," he muttered, as Saki, for once, shivered slightly. Danzo-sama had made her Otou-san really angry! Her father had to be really strong too, since he had really big snakes as his friends! Her father was clearly going to protect her from harm, she was sure of it! But…did he just say Kyuubi Jinchuuriki?

**So he knew! Why isn't he freeing me yet!**

_Freeing you?_

**That damn bastard! We had a deal!**

_A deal?_ Saki was confused, what deal could the Kyuubi have with her father?

**Damn bastard won't help me out? Then I'll force him to! Listen up brat: he just wants to use you for his own reasons! He doesn't love you at all! He's just waiting for the right moment to take me away and use me for his own purposes! You're just a tool to him!**

_No…that's not… possible, I mean…he…_ The words actually hurt, as she stared at the man's back, who seemed silently waiting for his snake-friend to understand something. In silence, she waited, albeit the voice kept telling her nasty things about her father, and how he never loved her, and those words…they stung. It wasn't like the normal insults she had been trained to know and not to answer…these words hurt. She tightened by reflex her right hand over the man's own who was still holding her gently by the forearm. She had to mistrust the voice, she had to mistrust the voice, Danzo had told her that, but if she did, then was Otou-san really Otou-san? What if he wasn't? Why would he lie to her? To use her?

Kuro didn't take much to connect all the dots, and when he did, he was as furious as Naruto was, only, he did what every furious snake does: he began to rattle his tail. Even if he wasn't a rattlesnake, it still had the desired effect, as the divisions of Tail and Scale troops slithered inside the massive cavern that was usually home to no more than Hakuja and Kuro.

Hakuja said nothing, he was just the sage of the snakes, and he actually found it interesting to watch it unfold…maybe he'd use his smoke to look at the possible and clearly soon to come, battlefield.

"Pops, what's happening?" Yoru hissed, as he slowly moved closer, being very careful not to crush anyone on his movement. Sure, he had to go slower than normal, but the other snakes weren't that dumb, and usually did what they could to give him room to maneuver through their ranks.

"Danzo sold out Naruto to Minato, to get the Kyuubi back and walk out clean," Kuro hissed back, and at that, Yoru's red and fierce gaze narrowed down, before muttering back.

"I say we can burn his ass down, together with his precious Root," strangely, a lot of hisses of concord echoed through the cave, as Tabako, puffing out a good dose of smoke from his cigar, yelled.

"Yeah! Let's crash his party with everything we've got! We're the Snake-Nins of Ryuchi cave! Let's show that bastard what it means to mess with our boss!"

"YEAH!" the general chorus of the snakes echoed thorough the cave system, reaching to anyone who was still on its way.

"We concur!" Hikari exclaimed, nodding, "Let's get this Danzo guy impaled over a pike and have him set on fire and paraded around the elemental countries!"

"That…that's a bit excessive don't you think?" Yami replied, looking at the black snake, which rolled his eyes.

"Fine! Let's just kill him by making him suffer hell," at that correction, Yami nodded back.

"He's the Hokage now, however," Kuro pointed out, "well, we'll think of something while you get those damn cursed seals out of your daughter's body, don't worry Saki-chan! Your father will remove them all!" the giant snake added towards the purple haired woman, as the mention of *daughter* made all the snakes in the cave flinch, and look from her to their boss, and vice-versa, carefully deciding not to say anything at the moment…snakes they were, stupid? Not at all.

"Hai…Kuro-san!" as the woman replied, a bit cringing inside, as she didn't really know what to trust, she followed her Otou-san away from there, towards a smaller cave, that held rock tables and instruments that seemed like the ones that Sai had, to draw upon scrolls, like inks and tablets to smash the inks and mix them, and so on.

"Now Saki-chan," Naruto replied, slowly patting on the ground next to him, since he had sat down on the rocky surface, without as much as wasting a moment, "sit next to me, okay?"

Saki nodded, slowly getting down on her knees, as it was the position she had been used to adopt, to be ready to strike at the first moment notice.

"No," Naruto replied shaking his head, as he had been sitting with his legs crossed, "sit like this," he slowly added.

"But…Otou-san…that's not correct," she replied, frowning, as a simple smile from her father made her forget about that specific Root regulation, and she swiftly, even eagerly, followed on his footsteps.

"I am sure the Kyuubi is talking to you right now, right?" as he queried that, Saki nodded.

"She's saying she wants you to keep your end of the bargain, and free her," she pointed that out, "and to be quick about it," she slowly added.

"No," he slowly replied, looking into Saki's gaze, "If I did that now, you'd die, Saki-chan, and I won't let you die," he added, as the conviction with which he said those words made Saki's puzzled stare become even more pronounced: why would she die?

"Listen, Saki-chan…I want to be extremely honest with you," Naruto muttered, sighing, "so I'm going to tell you only the truth, from now on, okay?" he added, as the woman nodded slowly.

"You have five cursed seals on your body, or even inside your body. I need to remove them all. It will be painful, it will hurt, but until they are gone, you will never truly be free from Danzo's grasp," he added, "do you want to be free?" he queried her.

"Free?" Saki knew the term, it meant to be able to do what one wanted to do, or to be freed from shackles, or to be brought out from rubble, or similar effects that removed an impairing condition.

"Yes, free to choose who to fall in love with, free to live your life, free to go where you actually want to go, free to say what you want and do what you want," Naruto whispered to her, "free to follow orders or not, that thing, the freedom of choice…do you want it?"

"Can I…" she muttered, thinking carefully about it, as she didn't want to delude her Otou-san, "Can I be with Otou-san if I choose to be free?"

"You can," he replied, nodding, "But I don't know if you will still think the same way, after you get to know the truth about me," he finished the sentence with a sad look, such that Saki hugged him out of reflex.

Thankfully he had warned the snakes she was fine, for the moment, and nothing bit the woman as she childishly hugged her father, thinking it would work in making him happier. She liked hugs, so since they made her happy, it could work the same for him!

"I'll always cherish Otou-san!" she replied, "You saved me from the rubbles! And you came for me!" she added, "And I've kept your necklace safe all this time!" she finished, proudly smiling to him, and showing off the necklace, the blue crystal she held around her neck all times.

"You…" he whispered, his voice actually creaking at such a display of happiness, and joy. Was that what being a kid meant? He had to remember she was just three years old, mentally, but he couldn't lie to her…could he? Could he actually keep being her *father*, when he clearly wasn't? He couldn't. He had promised not to lie to her from now on, so he couldn't do it…

"You did good," he said, gently ruffling her hair, as his gaze softened, well, he could at least tell her later on, after removing the cursed seals, "I'm proud of you," he slowly added those words, letting them roll off his tongue, those words he'd knew would make her happy, but instead…she just cried. She began crying and wailing against his chest, tears running down her cheeks as she clung against his chest, while Naruto, not knowing what had clicked her like that, held her close. Was it like…with him and Konoha's word?

"It's all right, please, it's all right, don't cry Saki-chan, please," he whispered, gently letting his right hand circle on the woman's back, to console her.

"She used to say those words to me!" she wailed, "and now…now…" she gurgled, as the cursed seals prevented her from speaking, letting her just cry more, until Naruto placed a hand in front of the woman's mouth, and stared at her narrowing his gaze.

"Don't say anything," he muttered, seriously, "trust my words: I will remove those seals, but…you have to promise me, and never to break the promise, that you will always listen to what I have to say, till the end of my speeches, no matter how longwinded they may become in the future, understood?"

She…she didn't understand, but she nodded, her father knew what he was doing, so he had a good reason to do and say what he did.

He slowly removed his hand from her mouth, and then whispered, gently.

"Now, lie down and bite this down," as he produced a slip of leather, thick enough to be chewed on, Saki nodded, before letting her father do what he had to.

No screams were heard from the central hallway, nor from the central cave, where Yoru and Kuro were hissing plans upon plans, until, in the end Tabako, the smoking rattlesnake, came up with the simple, perfect, and optimal solution.

"Let's just bait him out with Toruna! Toruna is known to be a cold-hearted jerk, right? From being that to being… corruptible, it's even easier…" letting the rest of what his words implied fly around, in the cave, and rest upon the ears of Kuro and Yoru.

"Tabako," Kuro hissed slowly, looking at the small rattlesnake, "You are a genius," and with that, Hakuja silently removed another shogi piece of Kuro's side. Heck, cheating to win was winning never the less…right?

*Sunagakure*

Mabui was watching the result of their search all over the town: nothing more than the brittle rests of what once was explosive clay, and nothing more. Sakura and Yakumo had done their best, the first in helping the poisoned ninjas that had tried to pursue the two, and the second using her Genjutsus to remove most of the rubble, and help save the people within. The problem was that now, they were waiting for Toruna to actually return to them, as they needed a track, and they needed it fast.

"Well…he can find us, right?" Sakura queried, looking towards Mabui, who was the oldest one of the team, and for seniority, albeit the Kumo Kunoichi had silently corrected it into *experience*, she was the substitute leader.

"I suppose he can, and I think he also knows when he's needed," Mabui replied, "since he did appear while I spoke with Chiyo-san," as the dark skinned woman spoke, the elderly woman next to her made a hearty laugh.

"Ha! That man! I'm hoping he'll autograph my book! I can't wait for the sequel! I just hope I don't die before it comes out!" she replied, holding *Hiss Collection* the compact version of the entirety of Toruna's books, in her right hand. Yakumo silently took out the same version, recently bought while helping the Suna ninjas, and both nodded at the same time.

"Anyway…I think I can do something about the track, before we lose it," Sakura muttered, before biting her thumb, yelling:

"Kuchiyose no jutsu: Pakkun!" the next moment, the Ninken dog Pakkun, Kakashi's best nose, appeared in a puff of smoke straight in front of the pink-haired girl.

"What is it, Sakura-san?" Pakkun muttered, slightly annoyed, he was in the middle of getting a nice nap, as it was clearly noticeable by the sleep-cap he had on his head.

"I'm sorry Pakkun, I'll make it up to you when I come back to Konoha," Sakura said, placing her hands together in a sort of *prayer* like way, "right now can you track the smell from the clay? We're searching for two people and we need to be quick about it," she added.

"Fine," Pakkun rolled his eyes, as he began sniffing the brittle clay, before pointing in a specific direction, "Let's get going! Keep up cause I ain't stopping!" and with that, he began dashing off, swiftly followed by the others.

As they began their dash through the desert's sand, heading towards, strangely, the Konoha's border direction, Shoko took the right moment, to get right next to Sakura and Yakumo.

"Ehi," she said, to get their attention, "Do either of you know if Toruna's got a kid from a certain Anko?" at that question, both girls sputtered and turned red.

"What!" Yakumo practically screeched.

"Well, I told you didn't I? The woman in question spoke of a certain Anko too, so I thought they might be related," Shoko replied, "but the only Anko I know of is that drunk lady that used to sleep or whine at Naruto's tomb…so…is there another one in Konoha?"

"Not that I know of," Sakura muttered, "and how old was the woman?"

"I'd say twenty, maybe eighteen to really give her an age," Shoko replied.

"Then it's impossible, I mean, the captain isn't more than…twenty-five?" Yakumo caught herself before saying *sixteen* at most, "How could he have one at seven?"

"Yeah, so why did he actually accept going with the woman?" Shoko replied, "That's something I can't understand…"

"Maybe he knew her? And that was a code phrase?" Sakura suggested.

"But she was a Suna shinobi," Shoko replied, "at least, she looked like one," she slowly added, frowning.

"Well, when the captain gets back, he'll have answers, I suppose," Yakumo muttered, "and we'll know then."

"That is if he doesn't outright ignore the questions," Shoko pointed out, "You know what an ass he can be."

"Don't speak ill of the captain, Shoko-chan," Mabui politely said, as her green gaze fixated on the horizon. Would they manage to get there in time?

It wasn't until the sun started setting over the horizon, that the tension in the group became palpable: just where did Naruto end up? He had told them that it wouldn't have taken more than two hours, yet, as the night rolled in, and they camped for a quick rest, they realized he hadn't come back yet. Mabui could only send her reports to the Raikage, but couldn't receive anything back, so it was mostly a one way mean of communication.

*Naruto*

"And this is the last one, I hope," with those final words, Naruto began sewing to a close the open side of the woman, who had passed out from the pain half an hour before. He would have given her painkillers, but he knew the fox would have done something to battle them, so it wouldn't have changed much the situation. The last of the five cursed seals had been removed, and the other four Narutos, since he had to make four others to help him in the delicate operation, nodded, before dispersing. The first seal had been on the tongue, the second on her shoulder, the third had been on her ankle, the fourth had been hidden inside the fox's one, and the fifth, the fifth had been etched directly on the woman's stomach walls.

Blood had been an issue: he just couldn't let her lose too much, so he had to work quickly. As he slowly let a healing jutsu form on his right hand, the sewing had been done just to wait until he got the hand basked in a warm green light, he started mending the broken skin, and then stared at the fainted woman, who had sweat all over her body, and who was breathing, albeit raggedly. He slowly let his green glowing hand do the work, as he slowly brought her muscles to relax, her pain to slowly dull away, as he realized that the fox's chakra was far more tightly controlled than when it had been his. The seal had been bettered, while it still maintained its eight point structure, it also yielded more spirals, and seemed to work to be in synchronicity with the pendant, actually. To chain her better, the very removal of the pendant would start to let the Kyuubi's chakra roll out in small waves of poison, incapacitating her and making her easier to extract, probably. They hadn't counted on him actually being able to work his way around the problem. Slowly, he took to seeing the seal on the woman's stomach, letting his right hand slowly trace with the tip of his index finger the lines of the seal, as he saw Saki's skin cradle with goose bumps, probably from the cold, unless she actually suffered, even when fainted, from being tickled.

Naruto stood still for a moment, letting the sage chakra pour into his body from the very air of the Ryuchi cave, not need for either Yami or Hikari, or for any of his clones, as he was there, right then, and it wouldn't take much time. He was defusing a bomb, so he hoped he'd manage. His eyes traced upon the seal, realizing its intrinsic nature, seeing the wisps of chakra embed themselves into the chakra coils, the Tenketsu points, and naturally flowing around in a sort of pattern that hailed directly from the seal. The bastard had made the woman's chakra coils directly linked to the seal, so that, if one failed, so did the other. Luck, for once, was on his side. Had he simply met her too late, he wouldn't have been able to save her, or keep his promise, as removing the seal would have simply killed the woman on the spot, together with the Kyuubi. He had to admit Danzo knew when to be shrewd. Slowly, two white snakes with red eyes emerged from Naruto's collar, and as they both tensed, their faces near the seal in question, the man began. The two snakes worked to check the fluctuations of chakra a split second before it would actually happen, it was their skill, but it would be worthless without Naruto's actual mastery to back it up. With it, he could know just a split second before if he was doing the right thing, or if he was about to make the chakra fluctuate in some way, wherever good or bad he didn't know. Still, chakra should never fluctuate while removing a seal, or altering one already existing, thus it worked, perfectly, in removal or alteration, but had no usage in creation.

His fingers coated in sage chakra and special ink traced the lines of the normal eight point seal, the same of the Shiki Fujin, only this time, there was no shinigami at all behind him, he didn't need one, he knew what he was doing. Hakuja had thousands of books stashed in mushy and wet caves, as he actually had no need for them, the result of eating passerby and coughing out their remains that weren't digestible, and since Hakuja was thousands of years old…he had knowledge, knowledge that Naruto's clones had digested and used. Sure, many things were bland, or destroyed by time, but something…something was actually useable.

The seal was redrawn, and slowly, but surely, it began to drip little amounts of fox chakra into the woman's coil system, like his own was meant to be, as from the very beginning, the Kyuubi's chakra was meant to become one with his own, and then the fox would have been nothing more than a talking voice, until it would disappear too. Obviously, in a matter of centuries, of hosts upon hosts, but till then, it was better to know he'd be fighting a slightly, where slightly was in truth an ocean less a teaspoon, weaker fox.

He finished his work, seeing the girl suddenly opening her eyes with a gasp, as she felt…energized, to say the least. Small wisps of red chakra flowing in her sore muscles, mending them, as she suddenly realized something…

"I…She's not…She's not speaking to me," Saki croaked, before coughing slightly and standing up, realizing there was a small puddle of blood next to her, and that it seemed to have come from her side, as her clothes, the Suna ones, were slightly drenched in the red liquid.

"I know," Naruto muttered back, "I altered the seal, to give you peace of mind," he added, slowly stretching before giving his hand to the woman, to help her up, from the ground, "now the seal should work better…but to be sure, you should give me the necklace for a moment," as he said that, Saki simply nodded, removing, maybe for her first time in her life, the crystal from her neck, and handing it over to her father, who held it for a minute, maybe two, before nodding.

"Otou-san, I'm…" she muttered, pointing at her mouth, and when her father nodded back, she smiled, hugging him again, "I'm free!" she exclaimed, holding tightly onto the man, who, with a small awry smile, unseen by the woman, gently patted her head. He knew fully well what freedom was, and how precious it really was, especially to those who had lost it.

"I'm happy for you," he whispered, before breaking the hug, since he had a hunch she'd simply keep it for hours, if let be, "but now there's something I need to discuss with you," as he assumed a serious tone, Saki nodded, while keeping her puzzlement to herself, as her father hadn't given her back the necklace, yet.

Three hours later, Hakuja and Kuro saw a crying Saki run off towards the exit of the caves, while, slightly behind her, Naruto walked with a grievous expression.

"So, you told her?" Kuro queried, "This soon?" he added.

"Yes," Naruto replied with a nod, "I just couldn't come to lie to her…you know, she reminds me so much of myself, when I was young…she went through my same stuff, but at an even younger age," he muttered, shaking his head, "Well, I'll keep an eye out for her," he added, before bowing politely to Hakuja, and turning to leave.

"You don't want to know what we have planned? Tabako's the mastermind this time," Kuro exclaimed.

"I trust you Kuro! Like last time, no matter what, I know you'd do the smart thing!" and with that, Naruto started walking, to reach the crying woman.

"Just like good old time," Kuro replied, before turning to the shogi piece, and rolling his eyes, "Hakuja-san!" the black snake pouted, "I am damn sure I didn't have *only* the king on my side of the board!"

"So you concede defeat?" Hakuja replied with a grin.

"Oh…I'll come up with something!" Kuro muttered back.

*Outside Ryuchi Cave*

Root training was meant to suppress all emotions, to make men and women alike forget everything about happiness, sadness, anger, love or anything else that was deemed weak or undeserving. She had been trained not to fall for such weaknesses, but the voice had still talked to her about them, just to spurn her against the Root, and for that reason, she had still held on some lingering amount of them. Then she had met her father, father for less than a day, too, and they had all come up, all the bottled up emotions had poured out like a geyser, and she had been happy, excited, glad, she had been literally on a cloud, as her father was strong, trustworthy, and kind to her, freeing her from Root, making the bad Voice disappear from her head, making her feel stronger. Yet he wasn't her father. He hadn't told her before, because he knew she wouldn't have accepted his help in that case, and he needed to whisk her away to help her, and for that, he hadn't refused her theories, instead calling her daughter, Saki-chan, and nodding to her. Then, he had promised to tell her only the truth and he had told her the truth. In one day, she had gone from being the happiest girl in the world to the most miserable, as he wasn't her father. He had lied to her, but he had also helped her. Still, who were her parents, really? Anko wasn't her mother, the name was just someone the man knew, and that the fox, thus, knew too. She couldn't trust the fox, the man had told her that, the fox was always keen on making the host suffer, in some way, or turn something to her advantage. Still, could she trust the man? The man who had told her his objective, his final objective, was to free the fox from her and then battle it back into him, if he couldn't defeat her? He had told her she wouldn't die now, as he had prepared the seal far better, and it would bring her back to life, after a couple of minutes. Still, could she really trust the man? She didn't know.

"Leave me alone," she whimpered, sensing the person slowly walking behind her. She turned around, looking at the man, in the middle of the vegetation…and realizing it wasn't her father at all. Firstly, he had long raven hair, and pale white skin, secondly, his eyes were golden, and slit, and thirdly, she knew who he was, since Root training *had* forced her to memorize the Bingo Book by heart.

"Kukuku," Orochimaru grinned, "Why would a girl cry so near Ryuchi cave?" he was curious, first, Manda hadn't appeared to his summons, secondly, his snakes, the ones he usually summoned with his techniques, had all refused his calls, and finally, he had heard about Toruna of the Snakes. He wanted answers, and he'd get them straight from Hakuja, even though he'd probably have to Body-shed away from there soon afterwards. He had left Sasuke to learn a new jutsu, Kabuto to look after the Uchiha and *his* body, and the Sound four had been sent to retrieve Suigetsu and Jugo, so that he could use them as training partners for Sasuke, since all the others would probably be defeated anyway.

Saki stared for a brief second, before reverting into what her training had taught her to do.

"Katon: Endan!" as she spat forward an enormous ball of fire, she dashed away: the "flee on sight" order on the legendary sannin wasn't something she was prone to forget about.

"Fiery attitude, huh?" Orochimaru queried, as he outright ignored the flame ball of fire until it was mere inches away from him, before letting it him, as he was nothing more than an earth clone.

"Kusanagi!" the sword's tip extended from Orochimaru's hiding place, hitting straight through the girl's shoulder, before slicing upwards, not removing the limb, but clearly making it a near fatal wound.

Wisps of red chakra began their work in earnest, blocking the blood from escaping the wound, as Saki's eyes narrowed down on where the sword had emerged from.

"Kukuku…think you can really escape?" Orochimaru hissed, as he moved out of his hiding spot, sword in hand, "maybe you should think again," he slowly added, "So you're Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, huh?" it didn't take a genius to see that the red chakra flowing into the wound to close it was red, and demonic, and out of all the Jinchuuriki he knew of…the only one he didn't know of was the dead one…or seemingly dead.

"Katon: Gōen…!" Saki couldn't finish, as Orochimaru's gaze turned into a Kanashibari no Jutsu, freezing her in place, shocked and terrorized, not knowing how to battle such a foul and murderous killing intent.

"Now let me ask you again…why are you…" as the Snake Sannin hissed that, he suddenly jumped to the side, only to find himself bind in white scaled snakes.

"Jagei Jubaku!" Orochimaru seemed more displeased and angered at such arrogance, than shocked. So Hakuja had been teaching someone else, and this someone was the reason he hadn't been able to summon Manda? He'd make the man pay his arrogance!

Orochimaru had expected the man to show himself, to taunt on him, or do something, instead, he didn't, it was only when he felt a hand push against his back something spinning furiously and with strength, that he roared in pain using the Body Shedding technique to escape the binds, while transforming his lower form into that of a snake, he tried to run towards the woman in question, to at least escape with something. That was when he hit hard against a near invisible surface that seemed like a barrier, separating him from the girl.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Snake sannin without snakes, only a coward at heart," the man spoke with a coarse voice, as turning around, Orochimaru took into full view something that made Saki's heart leap, as her…if not father, then what? Friend? Uncle? Uncle! Her uncle was there, on his back the fluttering white and black mantle with the kanji for *Sage*, his eyes set ablaze with furious and murderous intent, as Orochimaru narrowed his eyes to stare back at the man, the man who had snake scales on his face, dark blue eyes, nearly bordering the purple, and red-stained dirt blond hair.

"A barrier, huh?" the snake sannin hissed.

"Precisely," was all the man said, before dashing in, Katana in his hand.

"Being forced to use the Shirohebi no Chikara, on one such as you…despicable filth!" as Orochimaru's mouth opened up, revealing his real form of a white snake, as he realized there wasn't another mean for him to fight the man, who had quite actually trapped him in there, he was kind of thankful the three years were actually up and about, as he pounced forward, opening his jaws wide enough to completely engulf the man, eating him out alive.

Saki, staring at the scene from outside the barrier, screamed, bringing her hands to her mouth, as a spike of chakra around her literally incinerated the surroundings, burning, in the meantime, also the barrier tags that Naruto had previously placed, thus freeing the Snake-Sannin, who turned, his gaze murderous, towards the woman.

"Kukuku…so smart…yet so…so…"

Orochimaru gurgled, as he began spitting out his own saliva, convulsing and opening his eyes wide in anger and rage, fear showing on him as he slowly felt his own body, his body, betray him, as it was torn apart, turning to rocks and smaller snakes that hissed away, no longer under his control.

"Impossible, I am…I AM… I refuse… to let this happen! I am Orochimaru! I am immortal! I will not die here! I am destined to discover the true meaning behind everything! I am destined to take control of everything in this world!" as Orochimaru screeched that to the heavens, his stomach suddenly bulged a bright blue and green light, as a yell, a yell Saki knew albeit her murderous fury right then, a voice that made her stop and stare in shock at the scene in front of her, committing it to memory, as it truly showed the strength of the man in front of her…the strength of her uncle.

"Senpō: Ōdama Rasengan" was but muttered, as Orochimaru's body exploded into white bits that turned into lumps of rocks as the snake's white head stared, for a final moment, at the man, who, simply, whispered.

"A shinobi prepares for battles he can win, Orochimaru…I was prepared to fight you since our skirmish in the forest of death, years ago," Orochimaru's thoughts stopped, at the realization of who the man in front of him was, as life, his life, his very own life, abandoned him, "you made a mistake, a grievous one, Orochimaru…you should have killed me then…because now…Now I am stronger than you…Chidori Eisō" and with those final words, words that beckoned his knowledge of a technique he wasn't meant to know, how could he know it, if it was Sasuke's personal creation, a lance of pure electricity darted from Naruto's fingertips, hitting the ex-snake master summoner straight in the head, tearing it apart as it burned and crackled and turned to ashes.

Then, Naruto turned to Saki, with a smile, and moved closer to the woman, who stood very still, eying the man in front of her, who slowly, but surely, placed both his hands on the purple-haired Kunoichi, before whispering, in a gentle, and calm tone, the words she wanted to hear, so desperately wanted to hear.

"I promise I'll bring you back home, your home, to your parents, your real ones…but you will have to trust me…okay?" as the man said that, soothingly, Saki's eyes turned watery once more, as she embraced him once more.

"What is it with women and crying hugs…" Naruto whispered, as he slowly made a small grin, before flinging a Rasengan straight against the face of the snake form of Orochimaru that had seemingly reformed and tried to bite down at them both.

"Stay dead you bastard!" Naruto roared as his rasengan turned the remains, finally, the few remains, to dust, grinded away by the chakra sphere.

"That's why one must never relax," he slowly added, as he began walking back to the cave, keeping an arm over Saki's shoulders, "everything's fine…but I think I'll have to teach you how to control your chakra better, can't have you incinerating half a forest…" as he mulled over those thoughts, he felt that he had forgotten something…but what?

*Land of wind- Two day later*

"Just where did he end up!" Shoko roared furiously, as they had been following the tracks all the way onto a rocky plateau, that seemed to hold a natural water source going downstream, and that had seemingly some vegetation on it.

"Maybe…he's gone humping?" Chiyo replied with a smile and in a sort of senile like way that made Yakumo blush furiously.

"No! The captain wouldn't do that!" the Kurama girl exclaimed.

"It is worrying however…and we have no means to contact him, if he doesn't show up," Sakura muttered once more.

"Or maybe he is simply waiting for the right moment," Mabui suggested, "He appeared out of thin air when he was needed…so he just wants *us* to follow the track, and then pop out when it's needed," she slowly added, "albeit it seems more like he's using us, than working with us," she muttered the last part between her teeth, before shaking her head, and concentrating on the mission in front of her.

A man with onyx eyes, fairly tall, sporting black hair with bangs that framed his face, and clad in a robe with red clouds stood on their path. It took a moment, for Mabui to realize what he was.

"He's an Akatsuki!" she exclaimed, assuming a defensive position, while Pakkun simply stopped, narrowing his gaze before muttering.

"Itachi Uchiha," the dog growled, "he's an S-class missing Nin from Konoha, accused of…"

"Murdering an entire clan, the Uchiha clan," the man finished speaking, eying the group with a pretty stern gaze, "speaking of which, you may count yourself lucky, as I do not plan on killing you…right now, I just need to stop you," as he finished speaking a sort of fish-like man, with blue skin, emerged from the nearby river, moving with clothes drenched in water, and the same appearance of those on Itachi, marking him as another Akatsuki member, he slowly reached for the handle of the sword on his back.

"Aw, that's no fun Itachi-san! Samehada wanted to taste their chakra," as he said that, the sword on his back actually moved, a bit, as it seemed alive. Albeit being covered in thick bandages, it was impossible to discern what was hidden underneath.

"You didn't kill Sasuke!" Sakura exclaimed, as the man, with a small grin, replied.

"My little brother was too weak to be worthy of being killed," he added, "and neither are you worthy too," as he finished, he looked around, for a second, puzzled.

"You felt that too?" the blue-skinned man said, as his sword suddenly sprouted its blue scales, going in a sort of frenzy.

"What? What's going on?" Shoko exclaimed, not letting her eyes go from both men, though she didn't feel anything in particular, so…

"We're in a Genjutsu!" Pakkun exclaimed suddenly.

"Too late to leave," Itachi pointed out, as both he, and Kisame, turned into crows, leaving the group into what seemed like a distorted version of the terrain they had been running on before.

"Stay alert!" Mabui whispered, narrowing her gaze…she had tried the *Kai* silently, but nothing had happened.

"Yakumo! Get us out of here!" Sakura yelled, as the hazel-haired girl, for once, nodded with a decisive look on her face.

The next moment, a Naruto-illusion the size of a small building appeared, floating behind Yakumo, wielding a magnifying glass, or what looked like one, but devoid of the glass inside. Swiftly, he brought it down on the group, and when it brought it back up, they could see a surprised Itachi and Kisame.

"Wasn't your…" Kisame would have wanted to speak, but the Naruto illusion suddenly sprouted a katana, dashing forward with a loud yell.

"Yakumo's Genjutsus can become reality as long as they have physical proprieties! So *A glass to remove Genjutsus* is valid!" as Sakura exclaimed that, Shoko dashed straight ahead, keeping her eyes on the ground, as she swiftly extracted from her sleeve her retractable staff, swinging it at where she thought Itachi was, only to hit the air.

Itachi had simply decided to move to the side, hitting the girl that had charged him from the back with a strong punch on the neck, sending her sprawling on the ground, her mouth hitting, and tasting, the dirt. Kisame wasn't even breaking a sweat, as the Naruto-illusion seemed to be fading with every hit it gave to the swordsman, as his sword seemed to thrill on taking in the chakra poured in the technique.

"Itachi-san, I don't like this sensation!" Kisame muttered, as Sakura had thrown a punch on the ground, breaking it to bits to bring Itachi away from Shoko, before dashing in rescue of the girl.

"Whoever he is, he won't hide forever," Itachi replied, as his look went for a brief instant to the pink-haired girl's eyes, before she fell on the ground, the Genjutsu knocking her out.

Mabui had silently grabbed a kunai, and a bunch of explosive tags, in less than a moment throwing them in what appeared like a casual and completely unorthodox manner towards the sky, until she simply pronounced.

"Tensō no Jutsu" as the words came out so did the things thrown disappear into nothingness, only to reappear, seconds later, straight against Kisame's back, the Kunai landing with the same strength it would have, from having fallen from up above, and piercing the explosive tags one after the other, igniting them all at the same time.

The explosion rocked the back of the fish-man, who didn't expect such a thing, and was thrown forward, and on the ground, long enough for Yakumo to actually take out a small parchment, and a brush.

"Sai gave me the idea," she muttered, as swiftly, she drew a zig-zagged line of ink that resembled a lightning, striking down a prone figure. A lone thunder-bolt appeared into the sky, dashing downwards, black and crackling with electricity, hitting the fallen corpse of Kisame, and blowing it into finer smithereens, leaving a fuming crater behind.

That's when Itachi narrowed his gaze, he could feel the chakra signature, but then, why wasn't it attacking? It seemed more of a spectator, than a fighter… still, he had to admit that the Kurama clan lived up to its expectations, albeit the owner wasn't quite proficient, maybe because she was the only one, and had to self-teach herself, but still, another one of those thunders, and he'd be the one knocked out cold.

He Shunshin'd in a flicker of leaves, appearing straight in front of Yakumo who, however, was shielded by giant fingers coming from her Naruto-illusion, who stared at him with an utterly angered gaze, before trying to flick him away.

_If mastered, it could be just like Susanoo…heck, she could copy anything through simple imagination…_ for once, Itachi found himself staring at the girl with a lot of potential, yet untapped, and that would probably remain like that, still…she was a risk, and for that, he had to kill her.

His Kunai for once appeared in his hands, as he could no longer waste a moment, feinting to the right, with a bunshin, he swiftly drove his kunai forward, as the girl hadn't sensed the difference between the two…but somebody else did. That same chakra signature now disappeared, and, in an instant, reappeared straight in front of him, blocking the Kunai with his own sword.

The man wore black and white clothes, and held a sword, a strangely familiar sword, in his hand. His eyes were closed, and on his cheeks black and white scales stood, while his hair, dirt-blond and stained with red, blood red, was spiky to say the least…but what caught him by surprise, was the fact that the man in question had a Genjutsu on his face, that his own sharingan peered through, to reveal…something bad.

It wasn't a sharingan, and it wasn't a Byakugan. It wasn't even the Rinnegan, or any so called fabled doujutsu, it was just…strange. A red slit in a golden eye hue, the symbol of the sage mode of a snake, but without it, the red slit would still be there, and surrounding it, stood by both of its sides not tomoes, or circles, or any other form of sharingan he had witnessed before, but simple straight black lines, four per side, with a final one underneath the slit.

"Seen something you like?" The man said, as the Genjutsu that made him appear to have his eyes closed had been pierced through, something the other man had realized.

"What…"

"What fool gives away his strengths to the enemy?" and with that, from his arm that was wielding the Kunai, a froth of snakes appeared to launch themselves forward, biting onto the side of Itachi's arm and shoulder.

"Who are you?" Itachi queried, as he realized he would be forced to abandon this corpse soon, as that of Kisame too was simply a technique done by Pain, the Shōten no Jutsu.

"Nobody important…but I've already taken care of Orochimaru…and you guys…you're next!" and with those words, the man flung a high-speed kick straight into Itachi's body, sending him to crash on the ground, with enough force that it broke the concentration for the technique.

Itachi opened his eyes, far away from the battlefield, with Kisame standing next to him, already on his feet.

"So, what happened? Did you see what they hit me with?" the swordman of the mist didn't want to admit it, but he was kind of offended he had been taken out before Itachi, though it was to be expected, he had thought they'd take him out swiftly too…

"We might have trouble…Kisame," Itachi whispered, "Because we need to return to Amegakure swiftly…something is not right, at all."

"Not of you to be…scared? What, the great Itachi Uchiha is scared?" as Kisame moved to walk next to his partner in the Akatsuki, Itachi replied.

"I used a basic Genjutsu with the sharingan, Kisame…and *he* wasn't fazed by it…whoever he is, whatever his eyes can do…I don't know," and with those words, Kisame fell in silence.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield that had no longer enemies around, Toruna of the snakes stood silently, as Hikari and Yami sprouted from his forearms, before dispersing in a cloud of smoke, to return to Ryuchi cave, probably.

"Captain!" Yakumo yelled, in relief, "You're alive!" she had already begun thinking he had died, somewhere, somehow, and that they were going to go forward alone.

"Let's go Yakumo, we don't have much time, after all," Toruna replied, slowly moving to where the two girls had been knocked out, while Mabui narrowed her eyes just for a second, before shaking her head. There had to be a reason why he hadn't appeared for them, right? Maybe it required them to be in mortal danger? But if that *was* the case…why did he appear when she spoke with Chiyo? What was the thing that made the snake-earrings click?

Toruna's right and left hand slightly glowed green, as he gently placed them on both the girl's head, until, after a couple of minutes, both girls opened their eyes, to stare at the blue ones of Toruna, who looked at them with a smile.

The next moment, both Shoko and Sakura flung a fist towards his face, but he swiftly jumped backwards, avoiding it as the two Kunoichi got back on their feet, their fists flaring and their eyes showing the fire of anger.

"Where have you been…captain?" they gritted through their teeth in perfect union, a thing that made Toruna chuckle, while Chiyo stared with a perplexed look at the bodies of the two dead…they weren't the same as those they had battled, and the man knew, he clearly had realized it…but hadn't talked about it.

Maybe he was waiting for them to realize it? She couldn't help but feel a bit of mistrust, for the man. She hadn't survived the shinobi wars because she had been a fool, she had even been, once, the leader of Suna's puppeteer brigade, and thus, she knew perfectly well all the underhanded tricks of puppets and puppeteers, and staring at that man…she knew he had something planned. It was just a gut instinct, but a good one never the less.

"Lost on the road of life," he replied, shrugging, as immediately, somewhere in Konoha, a silver-haired Jounin stared into the sky, a single tear of joy falling from his eye, albeit for no apparent reason, before returning to his *Icha-Icha Violence Redux* doing his best to ignore his girlfriend's, Rin, murderous gaze.

"Well, Pakkun," Sakura said, pointing at the dog, that only them emerged from behind Chiyo's back, "is guiding us towards where Gaara is and…"

"You're Kakashi's ninken dog, right?" Toruna queried, looking at the dog with Konoha's forehead protector around his neck.

"Yes, that I am…your smell is familiar to me, but I can't seem to place it," the dog replied, as he stared into the man that seemed to have sprouted faint whisker marks, and had blue eyes, with bright blond hair, still red-stained.

"Don't worry about it," Toruna replied, moving close to the dog, "deliver this to Kakashi, I'll take the track from here," as he whispered that, he delivered a small scroll to the dog's mouth, "and remember…whatever happens, only to Kakashi, and when he's alone, it's extremely important…tell him the *Bro* sent him this." As Pakkun stared at Sakura, since *she* was the one who had summoned her, the pink-haired Kunoichi nodded, she had no idea why but after all, Pakkun was just replacing Toruna, so she would have dismissed him never the less. Pakkun dispelled, leaving the group with far more questions than answers, as Toruna, simply, closed his eyes before touching the ground.

"Stay close to me, and follow," and with those words, he dashed forward, being followed closely by the rest of them, albeit Shoko, with hand-gestures, queried Mabui about what *The bastard's problem was*, earning herself a shrug from the elder Kumo Kunoichi, who had no idea too.

Sakura simply looked a bit dejected, as she felt she had been the worst one, maybe only seconded by Shoko, but still, she slowly got right next to Yakumo, who seemed resolved and determined, for some strange reason.

"Sakura-chan," Yakumo muttered, "our captain said he took care of Orochimaru," as she said that, Sakura's eyes lit in surprise. The man in front of them, that was guiding them, that was their peer in age, had taken care of a legendary Sannin?

"Captain!" Sakura exclaimed, suddenly increasing her speed, to be running right next to him, "You defeated Orochimaru! What about Sas…"

"He wasn't there," Toruna replied, _Or I'd have killed him too,_ "and it wasn't even a fight. Once trapped, and without snakes, all he could do was try to feed on me…but the bastard never underwent sage chakra training, so when he began sucking on my chakra, it poisoned him, and he couldn't finish his vile jutsu…instead getting a nice good treatment of stone-medicine and getting utterly trashed to pieces...he didn't realize I was in sage mode, because he never saw it before…and that marked the end of him,"

"I…I see," Sakura replied, nodding, but before she could return to the back, Toruna spoke again.

"Even the strongest of shinobi can fall to the slightest of distractions, so don't forget my words, Haruno-san, even the strongest can be defeated, we're ninjas, deception is key to survival," and with those final words, the captain pressed on.

*Amegakure*

Katsumi was happily playing with the other kids of the orphanage, her mother watching them play from the window, as she was happily humming a nice song. It was at that moment that the door opened slowly behind her, and someone crept in silently as a ghost, before slowly encircling his hands around the woman's waist.

"Cooking lunch?" the voice of blond-spiked man spoke with a happy tone, as his wife, Kushina, nodded with a happy smile.

"Yeah, still…there's something I want to ask you," Kushina muttered, as she turned around to stare into her husband's clear blue eyes, "and it concerns Naruto," as she finished the sentence, Minato's eyes slowly hardened, but he assumed a swift smile.

"What about him?" he queried, refraining from using the *that* to refer to *that* thing.

"I know he's dead," she muttered, "and you didn't tell me till now," she added, slowly, as Minato's eyes bulged in shock, he had overlooked the seal's limitation, when dealing with Katsumi's memories. He had blocked anything *good* concerning Orochimaru, and anything *bad* concerning them, simple seals worked strongest, after all, so Naruto's death seemed to have been in the *bad* things about Orochimaru Katsumi thought of, and had remained…

"I can…" as Minato tried to speak, he was cut off by Kushina, who shook her head, before whispering back.

"I understand, you didn't want to make me feel in pain for not knowing," she said, as Minato grabbed the ball, looking sideways like one who's caught on the deal, "but that isn't all…I want to know who did it," she added, "and why."

Minato thanked Kami that for Katsumi's, her parents killing his brother was a bad thing on them, that had been blocked, so, for that, he vowed to make an offering later that night, but till then, he explained slowly.

"Danzo took him…and then transferred the Kyuubi to someone else…and he died because of that," he explained slowly, as tears began filling Kushina's eyes, before she shook her head, using the back of her right hand to swipe away her tears.

"Danzo…It's always him…Minato, please…" she whispered, touching with her right hand her husband's cheek, "I know he harmed us and made us suffer, but he was still our child…please…I want to avenge him," as she spoke slowly, Minato slowly looked to the side, before Nagato actually entered the room, with Konan pushing his wheelchair.

"Nagato-kun!" Kushina exclaimed, surprised in seeing her cousin in person, as usually it was one of his *paths* that came around, "something happened?"

"There's something that is bugging me," Nagato muttered, his voice barely a wheeze, "how can a group of five people, go from Kumo to Suna, in less than two months, without being tracked?"

"They'd need to fly," Minato replied, subtly standing a bit forward, with Kushina behind, since he didn't like such a question, "I could take a split second, but it would cost me a hefty dose of chakra to do it," he added, not liking what the man was hinting, at all.

"Then there's another problem," Nagato continued, as Kushina simply stood silent, letting her cousin talk, "Toruna of the snakes is hiding something really bad…a Doujutsu," he added, "one strange enough that not even Itachi could discern what it was, or what it did…but it seems to make the user immune to Genjutsus, albeit Itachi couldn't try the higher level ones…"

"Itachi-kun?" Kushina queried, remembering the first son of her friend, Mikoto, "You never told me he's in your Missing-nin organization, Nagato-kun! Why is he no longer in Konoha though?"

"Kushina-hime…I can answer that later on. Anyway, Nagato-san," Minato replied, "What was Toruna's eye like?"

"A slit with four black lines per side, and a final one beneath the slit," Nagato replied, "furthermore…Itachi has also said that he was wielding Kusanagi."

"But that's…" Minato was at a loss of words, as, however, Nagato pressed on.

"Orochimaru's sword? Yes, it appears so," as he finished speaking, his rinnegan gaze went to the outside, looking at the kids playing, "it seems that he killed Orochimaru…after all, he is Toruna *of the snakes*," as Kushina's cousin pressed on those words, Minato's thoughts drifted to the last time he had seen the man, he seemed to have been badly beaten up by that boy, Sasuke…so it had to be a fluke, or a cooperation, or maybe a lucky shot.

"Still, you saw him getting taken down by a simple Genjutsu from Sasuke, right?" Minato pointed that out, as Kushina, behind him, narrowed her gaze.

"When did you meet Toruna of the snakes, honey?" she queried, strangely emanating a murderous aura.

"Well, during our hunt for a missing-nin we crossed his path and…" Minato turned around to explain, but Kushina, wielding *The Hiss collection*, pushed it straight into her husband's hands.

"Next time, have him autograph my book!" She pouted, turning around to keep on chopping the dinner.

_Still, I wonder why a Land of Iron Tracker would attack Itachi-kun…did he do something bad?_ Kushina let the thought run through her head a couple of seconds, before shrugging it off as she went to finish cutting the carrots.

"Would you stay for dinner, Nagato-kun? Katsumi-chan would like to meet her *cool-eyed* uncle," Kushina queried, turning with a smile to Nagato, who, for a brief second, grinned back, before shaking, slowly, his head.

"I'm afraid I can't stay much…and Minato-kun, please take into account that we are still meant to do a trip to Konoha anyway…if Kushina wishes to come, she is free to," as Nagato turned to leave, or better yet, was turned to leave by Konan, Minato gritted his teeth.

As nothing happened, Konan slowly pushed Nagato out of the room, and of the orphanage, were she then disappeared together with him in a flicker of paper.

Kushina slowly dropped the knife down, and then turned to Minato, smiling slightly.

"I'm going then, 'ttebayo! I'll better warn Katsumi-chan I won't be around for a while, and that Konan-chan is in charge while I'm not here," she replied, as Minato, simply, nodded.

That was a huge risk, but still, Nagato had played his cards right. Taking the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki from Konoha, a certainly not more than three years old, would work in their favor, and worst case scenario, Minato and Kushina could run with the child…or he could simply menace to kill him as a way to ensure they'd be left in peace afterwards.

*Otogakure*

Sasuke had been staring at the wall, trying to reason why Kabuto was late for his new training regime, when he realized that somebody was actually running, swiftly, opening every door without even trying to erase his presence. Actually, it was two persons.

The door of training room he was in was opened with a flash, as a pink-haired woman, Tayuya, walked in followed by Karin, the red-haired woman.

Tayuya had a crude wooden flute in one hand, and seemed a bit, just slightly, famished, having done what they could to run till Oto, using only their forces, and attacking some people on the road, and they had basically covered the last seven days by running non-stop, hoping that the meager insight on Kumo's patrols and defenses, tested on their skin, could work to appease Orochimaru. Karin would have probably simply told Orochimaru she was toying with the enemy to survive, and extract information, but had failed in that. It was their plan, and it was the only thing that could have worked.

"So this is where you fucking went, huh? Running back to Orochimaru without even coming to save us!" as the Kunoichi snapped at the boy, Karin simply turned around her gaze, before querying.

"Where is Kabuto? Or Orochimaru-sama? And the others?"

"Why should I know? Kabuto should come for his training regime any time soon, ask him when he comes around," Sasuke replied with a scowl, only to be surprised when a man with long spikey white hair entered the room from another side, while in tow was Anko, wearing her usual big grin of a smile, and since both were known to be Konoha's ninjas…everyone in the room suddenly tensed, especially because a bruised, battered, and unconscious Kabuto stood on the shoulder of C, the sensor.

"How did you find us! We did what we could to hide our tracks!" Karin exclaimed, "And I didn't sense any of you!" she added.

"I'm a sensor too…do you know that chakra suppressing seal can effectively hide one's body from sensing ability?" C replied, imparting some knowledge, before flinging three poisoned smoke bombs at the three.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu: Doki!" as the demons from Tayuya's flute appeared in front of her, they dashed forward to take the smoke bombs head-on, but were surprised when Sasuke simply dashed past the two of them, deciding to run instead of staying.

"Ehi! You coward!" Karin yelled at the Uchiha's back, who, however, didn't stop. No point battling the legendary Sannin Jiraiya, if he could use the two as a shield, he'd be off and about.

"Well then," as the poisonous balls were about to explode back at the thrower, a toad-like mouth erupted from the ground, using its tongue to eat them up, and disappearing in a puff of smoke later. Just like the usage of the Toad's stomach, only, a mouth, "how about you tell us what Orochimaru is planning?" as Jiraiya queried that, Karin bit her lip, looking towards the door…only to find Tayuya that had already dashed away.

"…I'm surrounded by cowards," Karin muttered, shaking her head, "I'm surrounded by cowards and bastards," she slowly added, as even Anko was having pity on the red-haired girl.

"Well…we were kind of expecting to battle Orochimaru…he's not here? I wasted my time *here* fighting off an old perverts attempt at me, instead of keeping an eye out on that woman from the Iron Lands?" Anko pouted, "This isn't even funny!"

"Would you mind if I…left too?" Karin queried, hopeful.

"We do need to capture Sasuke, he's a missing Nin from Konoha, and Tayuya, who has the cursed seal…you…well, I say we can let you go," Jiraiya shrugged, "I mean, she doesn't even appear on the Bingo Book," as she added that, C narrowed his gaze on the girl, that suddenly jolted very still.

"I'd like to point out…that if you ever, ever, dare try anything against a Kumo shinobi, I will personally take upon myself the mission of snapping your neck in half," and with those words, the three dashed away, C keeping the knocked out Kabuto on his shoulder, following behind Tayuya and Sasuke.

The two, in the meantime, had actually gone into different directions.

Tayuya had headed straight out for the only place she could deem safe, or at least, thought of save in her mind: a now burnt to the ground village, the only place which had seen her some sort of happiness, before having it taken away by incursions from brigands. At the very least, she'd plan something there. Maybe sell herself out as a mercenary, but to do so, she'd need to remove the Otogakure headband, and maybe…maybe find a way to remove the cursed seal definitively? She just…she just felt tired of running, of being mistreated. Her anger at the world, her curses, was it really her? The girl who played the flute because her father liked the sound of it? When did she turn out like that? Was it when she had been bitten, for her abilities? Was it when she had seen her father take money from Orochimaru to sell her out? Was it when she had come to understand how rotten the world truly was? Was it when she had returned with her dokis, and had found the village already destroyed by cutthroats, that she had dealt with personally? She felt strange, as unknown to her, the cursed seal was tightly kept in check by Jiraiya's own, and slowly, but surely, its impulses on the girl's mind were coming to a halt.

As she lost herself in those sad thoughts, snakes dashed forward from her side, entrapping her.

"I've caught myself a nice little mouse, Anko-chan is really happy now!" The purple-haired Kunoichi exclaimed, as Tayuya, not giving up, whistled for one of her doki to appear, and crash straight against the snakes that sprouted from the enemy's forearm.

"I'm not that easy, you bitch!" Tayuya yelled back, as she blew air into her crude flute, as the sounds she emitted aimed straight to confound the purple-haired woman, who, on her own side, grinned, "Mateki: Mugen Onsa, I don't even need to know where you are…just listen, and lose the fight," and just like that, Anko brought her hands on her hair, as morbid visions seemingly took place in front of her very own eyes.

Only for the snake-mistress of Konoha to smirk, dash and, catching Tayuya by surprise, flinging a straight-out fist directly into the woman's face, this time actually breaking a couple of teeth and knocking the Kunoichi out cold.

"No can do, my Otouto is both an ass and a smart-ass," and with those words, a couple of small snakes snuck out, their fangs slightly bloodied, but having no poison, it worked, "it still does hurt, to get bitten repeatedly though," she muttered to herself, "No pain no gain however! Let's get you cursing whore back to Kumo's highly entertaining prison!" and with an excited smile, Anko proceeded to gag the woman, tie her up for good, and then place her on her shoulder, heading for the rendezvous point.

Meanwhile, Jiraiya had already reached Sasuke, since, no need in lying about it: he was still fast despite his own age. What he hadn't taken into account was the boy's natural predisposition for flight, which meant that while, in truth, he had reached him, in fact the boy was kilometers above, in the sky. He didn't know wherever to smirk or not, thinking he could make a prideful Uchiha run, his tail between his legs…but he wasn't a sage for nothing.

"Frog Taijutsu: Jump!" he didn't even know why he obstinately called it a jutsu of sorts, it was jump him using chakra on his leg muscles to make a high above leap, but still, it felt nice yelling that out loud, as the next moment, he left behind a crater, the result of the backslash, as he soared towards the Uchiha, who, arrogant like little others, didn't even realize the toad sage was already starting his downward motion…kicking with his sandals on the boy's back, while plunging a chakra suppression seal on the Uchiha's head.

"And here we fall!" He exclaimed, as the ground came into contact with the last Uchiha's face, while Jiraiya, for a brief second, breathed in relief as he walked out of the created crater, holding him by the collar of the boy's vest, and flinging him against a tree, before taking out a paint brush…even the Uchiha, needed a bit of…cursed seal suppression.

From Oto, they'd head towards Konoha first, however…it was closer, and Sasuke was a Konoha's missing Nin, furthermore he suspected Anko actually missed her favorite dango stall, and C wouldn't mind seeing how Atsui was faring, in Konoha.

*Sunagakure*

Toruna stood silently in front of the boulder, he recognized the seal, albeit, to those within, it had strangely been redone in a better way, a way he actually found interesting.

"This is messy…there are four seals spread around the area," he muttered, "so, they need to be disengaged at the same time," he slowly added, "I'd like each of you to go and grab a seal, and…fight whatever comes out from them, if *I* go, four Toruna to defeat wouldn't be pretty."

"Wait…so each of us is going to fight…himself?" Sakura queried, perplexed.

"The seal creates a chakra copy of the original, and the two have to fight, since that's the purpose of the four seals scattered around. I'll send Kage Bunshins with each of you to find them, but I need to be here to deactivate it," Toruna added as he did the necessary seals to create enough Kage Bunshins for each of the team, and, as everyone nodded, Chiyo remained behind with Toruna.

"Ask away, Chiyo-san," Toruna said, as the elder woman narrowed her eyes before whispering.

"You were seeing the battle going since a while before intervening, isn't that right? The spike in chakra the two guys felt, that made her so worried, was you all along," the elder woman replied, "why would you do that?"

"To learn all jutsus in the world, to live eternally, to become the strongest and conquer all," Toruna replied with a small grin, "that was Orochimaru's, the snake Sannin, ideal…mine is to hold all the promises I made, and then…to go back home, and protect my precious people until death claims me," he slowly added.

"You haven't answered the question, Toruna-san," Chiyo replied, "Why didn't you intervene immediately?"

"Because…a shinobi should prepare for any battle accordingly, Chiyo-san…by watching how they fought, I understood their strength and weakness," he added.

"The point is…which side of the battlefield were you actually watching, Toruna?" the elder woman menacingly hinted.

"Both, of course," the man replied, with a small chuckle, "keep your friends close," he started.

"But your enemies closer," Chiyo finished, the man wasn't actually neither a friend nor a foe…after all, he belonged to the Iron Lands, so there was no way he'd betray them. Still, keeping on the alert wasn't such a bad thing.

In a moment Toruna tensed up, before beginning his work on the seal, swiftly but surely working on it until he swiped it out of the rock, making the rock crumble by itself, to reveal a cave, much like the one from which he had saved Yugito, and the two Akatsuki men looking at them, the limp, and dead, body of the Kazekage in the middle of a falling down in the ground statue.

It was a flash, as snakes sprouted from Toruna's arms, launching themselves forward to impact against the two.

"Mandara no Jin!" snakes swarmed the area, strangely heading in a sort of wave-rush towards the two…and towards the statue's mouth, where a single small green snake manage to slither in, and hide as the statue slowly dispersed, carrying it with her.

"Art is an explosion!" As the blond-haired man said, he deflected the snake's attacks by jumping atop a flying clay bird, before yelling out loud.

"Master Sasori! Do you need a hand?"

"Kugutsu no Jutsu doesn't require your hands, Deidara," Sasori grumbled, as he looked at the man, and the elderly woman, in front of them, not the slightest worried from the snakes' bites at him.

"So you're made of wood, ain't you?" Toruna replied, cracking his neck, "This is going to be interesting…really interesting," Hakuja sneezed at that use of a phrase, as he wouldn't admit it, but he had caved in to the woman's desire of watching her uncle fight, and for that, a small cloud of smoke was in the middle of the cave room, with snakes all around watching the fight, some, like Yoru, even held with their mouth small flags with Naruto's face on it, waving them around.

"Go uncle! Go uncle!" Saki exclaimed from her spot in the cave, "Fight-o!"

"You should be careful," Chiyo muttered, staring at the scene in front of her, "Sasori's puppets were always filled with extremely poisonous weapons, if you are wounded, you will most likely die," she added.

"I survived the toxins of Cave Ryuchi…his poisons? They're antibiotics!" Toruna replied with a smirk, before slowly, but surely, placing a single step atop a snake, but strangely not crushing him under his weight.

"Master Sasori! I'll be going now, don't take too much!" as Deidara flew out of the cave, Toruna not bothering to stop him, Sasori grumbled something, as he stared at the man.

"Well…you seem boastful for a man, Shikomi Kugutsu: Shinshin Happa!" as senbon needles flew out of the man's mouth, a man that in truth was a puppet, the wall of snakes rose forward, blocking Chiyo's view of the battlefield, but actually…it didn't stop there, effectively surrounding in a sphere of snakes, that still had light filtering in, both Toruna and Sasori.

"I'm going to test some jutsus with you so…Dance well," as Toruna swiftly disappeared from sight, Sasori's eyes widened…this was just like…

"Hiraishin!" he exclaimed, as a katana enhanced with wind pierced straight through the puppet's back, with a speed that wasn't normally possible.

"Try again!" Toruna yelled as he swiftly made a crescent move swipe, that send the wooden puppet to pieces, while making the puppeteer emerge from it and hit with the back against the snake-walls.

"These are just snakes, boy," the red-haired man who spoke didn't seem much older than Toruna, "I on the other hand…have Kage's at my command," with those words, a puppet puffed into existence, the puppeteer using his chakra threads to control it, as the man the puppet resembled to had raven hair, and seemed covered into a thick leather coat, "and with them, their abilities! This is the true power of human puppetry! Satetsu! The iron sand of the third Kazekage is at my disposal!" as the puppet in question began to twirl iron sand out of his mouth it formed a sort of whip, that lashed out at the snake-barrier, only to find it being reflected backwards.

"Nope," Naruto replied with a grin, "not a chance you can get out…because you see…they're all coated in wind chakra," as he said that, his feet slowly began drifting on his own, as the rest of his body followed, he acquired the speed necessary to mimic the Hiraishin, and the reverse summon of the snakes in the small enclosed space granted him the possibility to actually catch the enemy by surprise.

It was the Hiraishin, a reverse summon acquire through sending chakra pulses to the snake in question that sent a pulse back to have him immediately appear next to him. Minato had kunais embedded with more complicated seals, Naruto on the other hand had snake summons that would summon him, and a speed increase do to him actually drifting on the back of the snakes. The difference, however, was that the snake's own chakra would eventually dissolve, and that reduced the overall time to less than four minutes…but he wouldn't tell that to the enemy, obviously.

As Naruto's katana slid downwards, it was soon intercepted and blocked by the iron sand that was a stronger mean of defense, and offense, than normal sand.

"Confining the battle against a puppeteer to close quarters, that is the correct thing to do," Sasori admitted, "But you cannot win, for the third's true power was…" and with that, Toruna's katana flew straight out of his hand, to attach itself to the puppet's arm, and as Toruna's eyes bulged, he jumped backwards, just in time to avoid the snakes themselves, that, having in their stomachs Ninjatos and kunais, simply flew straight against the puppet, and dispersed.

"Magnetism, huh!" Naruto cursed his bad luck, he needed more time to test it out, but since he couldn't use metallic weapons…he wasn't all that bad, actually, "Good think I know variety is key to survival then!" as he roared that, he created three clones, that darted straight off against the man to distract him while his forearms sprouted, and absorbed, Hikari and Yami, not wanting to show them off to the enemy.

The first clone dispersed briefly, when the katana flew straight through him, aimed at the real one, but one of the remaining clones gripped the handle, bringing it to a stop inches away from the original's face, while the second actually charged an electric hand, to try and flung it straight at the Kazekage-puppet, only to have the whip of iron slash straight through him, making him disperse. The last clone was pulled back together with the katana, and mercilessly pierced by the third kage's arm with a blade hooked to it. Then, just as it was about to fling the katana towards the man, the man himself disappeared in a flicker of speed.

"Raiton no Yoroi" as he seemingly used with the perfection the technique of the fourth Raikage, Sasori, and Chiyo, couldn't help but query a simple question…How?

How was he able to seemingly use such a technique? What was his secret? What…the next moment, Sasori's surprise cost him his puppet, as a fist imbued with electrical chakra literally passed through the body of the third Kazekage, as it exploded to smithereens, the electricity running through the iron sand and making the volatile poisons within evaporate and explode, just as, with inhuman reflexes, he disappeared again, before outright appearing behind Sasori, this time, his hand dashing straight forward…and hitting wood.

"Huh?" was all Naruto said in surprise, as he suddenly found his hand clamped down, while from Sasori's back a sort of metallic chain sprouted forward, its tip covered in poison that outright pierced the man's side. It should have been a direct hit to the stomach, but the lightning armor enhanced his reflexes to nearly inhuman levels, granting him, at the very least, the ability move out of harm's way, or at least, mostly out, before whispering:

"Rasengan!" as his clamped hand suddenly sprouted a spherical chakra sphere, the things holding it at bay relented, as he freed his hand and dashed backwards, just as Sasori's Akatsuki cloak flew away from the man's body…to reveal a wooden puppet, a hole in his chest where Naruto had attacked that showed nothing more than the other side, a strange cylinder with the Kanjis for *Core* on the other side of where a heart would normally reside, but, most importantly, it revealed how utterly gross the man had become.

"No wonder it seemed you hadn't aged, Sasori," Chiyo muttered, looking at the scene in front of her very own eyes, the rasengan was the technique of the fourth Hokage, it was famous worldwide. The man, Toruna of the snakes, was a real mystery: a master of the rasengan, the lightning armor, the usage of snakes of Orochimaru…just what, in truth, was this man?

"Akahigi: Hyakki no Sōen, with this technique, I have destroyed an entire country!" as Sasori yelled that, from his front chakra threads erupted, to generate puppets upon puppets from the scroll on his back, while he himself threw his two forearms forward, that deformed into sickening and spinning blades, all aimed at the man in front of him, all aimed at the man who had gone so far as to force him to use his own body to defend himself.

"You need a hand?" Chiyo exclaimed in a senile way, as Toruna seemingly flickered through the enemy forces, just like the fourth once did with the Iwagakure army during a war that Chiyo had personally participated in…

"Not at all!" The man replied, avoiding spinning blades like they were as slow as slugs, "I can handle this, I'm Toruna of the snakes after all, Snake Sage extraordinaire!" as he said that with a smile, he flung a rasengan straight through a group of five puppets, making them twirl and spin and crush each other by the spinning motion, as he dashed straight through them, towards Sasori, who flung two more forearms forward, letting hot fire streams aim at the man, who, with a chuckle, made the appropriate hand symbols.

"Kage bunshin no Jutsu!" one clone threw Toruna in the air, and other two clones, before getting the fire stream. The second clone, threw Toruna and the remaining clone forward, to then be destroyed by the fire stream following them, the third clone ran two rasengans straight through the puppets that wanted to crush the real one, and the real one, nearing Sasori, pierced his chest with his hand, where his real heart was, while yelling.

"Raiton: Electromagnetic Murder, Toruna's Execution variant!" the electricity that flowed into the puppet literally broke it to splinters, as Toruna barely managed to reverse summon himself straight where one of his snakes was, in the cave, and away from the puppet, that exploded sending his blades, and armaments, everywhere in the radius around him.

As Toruna caught a small moment of respite, catching his breath as, no matter what, he no longer had the chakra of one time, he slowly moved towards Chiyo, who, however, didn't seem to be actually *well* put.

"You've got a blade through the stomach," Naruto pointed out, as the old woman actually smiled back, before falling on the ground, coughing out blood.

"Listen…if I'm going to die anyway…can I ask you a favor?" The old woman muttered, as Toruna moved closer to her.

"Bring me closer to the Kazekage…Gaara…" as Toruna slowly nodded, moving the old woman, gently, albeit it was difficult not to budge too much the metal blade, coated in poison, he finally collocated her next to the red-haired boy, who had been thrown into a corner of the room from the explosion, but otherwise seemed no better than what he was minutes before: still dead.

"For their grandsons, sometime grandmothers act to spoil them…Kishō Tensei, to think I'd have used it to bring Sasori's parents back to live…by breathing life in their puppets, and now instead…Toruna of the snakes…whoever you are…can you promise me you will help this old lady achieve peace? War is something horrible to witness…it takes too much from too many," as the old woman spoke, her hands had already started basking in a blue light, as they began working on the third Kazekage.

"I took this boy's happiness, by sealing Shukaku into him, when he was but a child…call it repenting, if you wish…but I'd like you to lend your strength to him, please," as the woman finished speaking, Toruna's eyes slowly narrowed down in a soft gaze.

"I promise you, that once all my enemies lie dead at my feet, I will strive for peace, old lady," and with those final whispers, Chiyo fell over the body of Gaara, who slowly opened his eyes.

"Well, you woke up," Toruna pointed out, as he gently removed Chiyo's body from the Kazekage, who looked, for a brief moment, at the man in front of him.

"What…What happened?" Gaara queried, curious…he recalled the bombs, the explosions, the pain…but now…

"I hear nothing," he added, looking strangely around, thinking that Shukaku was probably playing a trick on him, "He's not speaking to me," he slowly added.

"I know the feeling, you'll get used to having your head for yourself, eventually," Naruto replied, getting on his knees, his right knee forward where he let his right arm rest, as he stared with a small smile at the red-haired boy.

"Who are you?" Gaara queried, "A…an Ex-Jinchuuriki?" Was that even possible? Removing a Bijuu killed the host, that much was sure…but then, why was he alive to begin with?

"Can you keep a secret?" as Gaara nodded, Naruto smiled…and began explaining in earnest.

*Meanwhile*

Sakura was questioning herself. Mostly, she was questioning the kage bunshin that kept doing absolutely nothing to help her out against her other self, that had, at most, her same strength, but simply wasn't seemingly getting tired.

"A hand?" Sakura exclaimed, as she ducked another fist, at least her enemy made her hooks look sloppy…but her being herself…she was just insulting her own style!

"Nope," the Kage Bunshin replied, "you're doing fine, consider it's training!" he pointed out, as he slowly turned another page of Icha-Icha violence Redux, before chuckling to himself.

The situation with Yakumo was nearly the same, nearly because, instead, the girl was actually winning, especially when the opponent couldn't, quite actually, replicate Yakumo's ability to make Genjutsus real…that seemed to go beyond a natural bloodline, maybe because while it was natural for Kuramas to have strong Genjutsu, to have them *real* was a quirk of nature? In any case, her chakra clone had done her best with Genjutsus, but had been dispelled moments after, and right then, the Kage Bunshin of Naruto was keeping her pinned down with questions about *why* she was using *his* image as a fighting model.

On the other hand, Shoko had fiercely fought her opponent, maybe to rekindle her ego from the previous loss on the battlefield, maybe to show off in front of Naruto that she was, indeed, strong, but in any case, she fought, harshly passing by her normal limits, until, in the end, she managed to knock the opponent out with a spinning kick, earning herself an applause from Naruto.

Mabui…had been sipping tea with her other chakra self, as both knew the futility of trying something against the other. Not that they hadn't tried, but since both could transport things on the other's head, the thing had escalated to the point that, while the two were sipping tea, they had several tons of rocks in free fall on their head, always switching places, while keeping the same height.

Just after a couple of minutes, Shoko reached Mabui's location, while the Kage bunshin meant for her dispersed, and so too did those of Sakura, after she finally won, and that of Yakumo, after imparting her with the stern lessons of *image copyright*.

It was then…that the Kage bunshin near the two Kumogakure ninjas spoke.

It was then, that the two Konoha's ninjas, returning to where the cave was, found neither Gaara, Toruna, or Chiyo, nor anyone else…but a note, a small slip of paper, on which was written, in clear and neat handwriting.

"_Mission's over, the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki has been caught, your services are no longer needed, signed: Toruna of the Snakes"_ and with those silent words, of goodbye, probably, both girls stared at each other, not understanding just *what* was going on.

"So…we go back?" Yakumo muttered, to Sakura, who, clenching the paper slip, nodded.

*Meanwhile*

"Master Sasori is taking too much time in getting here," Deidara muttered…just where did he end up going? Maybe he was making the man into one of his puppets? Still…

"He won't be coming," a voice spoke, slowly emerging from the ground, as Zetsu slowly appeared, "He has died against Toruna of the snakes," he added, "**Weak man he was, but interesting Toruna is. **Anyway, get back to Amegakure…we're planning to grab the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki from Konoha next, with the Ichibi captured and sealed, we can proceed to catch the nine tails," as Zetsu slowly reunited with the ground, Deidara looked up into the sky, as he saw for a brief second a passing flying black snake, with purple and orange feathers…he decided not to dwell too much on it. Sadness was making him see hallucinations, after all.

"Sasori-sama! Do not worry! I will avenge you with an explosion of epic proportions! Konoha shall become cinders!"

*On Kuro's back*

"So, you reverse summoned both Shoko and Mabui to the Raikage, and we are going by flying mean towards Konoha?" Kuro queried, not that it bothered him since this time they'd go by flying above the ground, something he preferred greatly.

"Yes. This time however, I won't go in there as a prisoner, as a Jinchuuriki, or as a slave…I'll go there as a free man of the Iron Lands…and I will have my revenge!" as Naruto muttered under his breath, he stared straight ahead of him at the horizon.

"So it's Danzo, Minato, the Akatsuki…and then?" Kuro queried.

"Then it's the Kyuubi, Kuro, unless I get my hands on Sasuke, in which case…he's head rolls off neatly too," Naruto replied with a murmur.

"Still…can I ask you a question?"

"Ask away Kuro, I don't hold secrets with you, you know," Naruto replied, slowly letting his head fall down against the snake's back, to watch at the blue sky up above him.

"What's that Doujutsu like?" he queried.

"Well…it's nothing grand," Naruto replied with a sigh, "it doesn't automatically protect me from Genjutsu, it doesn't make me copy every Ninjutsu on the moment, and it certainly doesn't allow me to throw jutsus from my eyes, I still need my hands…however…it gives me understanding," he added, "I need to see a jutsu, to understand how it works or better yet, how it should work. Then I need to train off like a madman for over a month or two, and voilà…the jutsu is learned. Basically…it's like having someone teaching you the jutsu, while you train for it," he muttered, "in the Raikage's office? Otou-san flickered in front of me in full armor, and the same happened for Sasuke's chidori variants…In this regards, it's more powerful than the sharingan, who copies the hand symbols…I understand the basic principles of every jutsu I set my gaze on…but I need to learn it through hard work."

"Something your clones do, however," Kuro replied.

"But my clones, the longer I keep them, the more they start revolting, as they need sage chakra to access the Doujutsu," Naruto replied, "since it requires that type of chakra to fully activate," he added.

"Well…you can always dispel them, right?"

"But then sage chakra would flow into me, so I have to dispel them one at the time to let it roll off," he replied.

"So that's why you didn't fight straight off the bat against those two from Akatsuki?" Kuro queried once more.

"Precisely Kuro…and how do you know that!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Well, Hakuja *might* have let us see your actions through his cigarette's smoke…but he stopped showing us when you defeated Sasori. Much to Saki-chan's disappointment…as her *uncle*," Kuro hissed with a small grin, "was worth watching even out of battle," he added.

"Oh no…" Naruto groaned.

"What a little heart-stealer you are, Naruto-kun!" as Kuro chuckled on that, Naruto rolled his eyes.

"No, that is wrong on so many damn levels that I won't even start it," he replied, "She's just Three years old! In the body of a twenty years old woman, but still, three years old! Furthermore, if I go back to Kumo, I'll have to marry Shizuka, that much, I promised," Naruto pointed out.

"You really plan on sticking through it?" Kuro queried.

"I promised Mifune, for as long as I was Toruna, I'd obey. He signed the betrothal contract, so yes, and I told her that when I'd come back to Kumo, I'd marry her then…so I will, as Toruna. If I manage to free and reseal the Kyuubi, instead…well in that case, there won't be a problem," and with those words, Naruto closed his eyes for a moment's rest.

"You know that Shizuka's got really smooth curves right?" Kuro suggested, "And nice assets and she's the daughter of Mifune! You'd be set to become the next leader of the iron lands!"

"Kuro…I don't care about that," Naruto replied.

"Then what do you care about?" Kuro said as his curiosity was piqued at the man's words.

"Someone…homely, a nice, homely type, the type you can come home to and say, "I'm back, honey!" and she'd reply with "Hey darling! Do you want a bath, dinner, or me?" you know, with the naked apron thing and all," as he said that with a small grin, Kuro rolled his eyes.

"That Yakumo girl seemed the right type," the black snake suggested.

"Until I saw her using illusions of *me* to fight? That's bordering the creepy, and I don't want *any* at all creepy girls in my life, anymore. At all. Understood?"

"Yes, then what about Sakura?"

"She's young and naïf, she's gotten stronger, but she's got a bad character…I want the homely type you can tease and have her blush, not the one you tease and get a fist on the face," Naruto replied.

"Man…that takes out even Anko and Yugito," Kuro chuckled again.

"They are my sisters Kuro!" Naruto exclaimed, "I don't see them as women!"

"Fine…so Saki's out too, obviously," as Kuro began thinking, he slowly came to a realization, "Well, what about that Amaru girl?"

"She's having a fling with Darui,"

"Then…damn this is hard, Saya?"

"Don't get me started on her *real* character,"

"Shoko?"

"See Sakura, and add to the equation that she's already with a boyfriend,"

"Mabui?"

"She's a bit…cold, and creepy."

"Samui?"

"No thanks, we don't even know each other all that well,"

"Hayari?"

"Hayari who?" Naruto queried, honestly not recalling… "Oh, that girl! I…I don't know actually…she seemed a lot like the quiet type, didn't get to know her at all,"

"Well…Shizuka?"

"That's on the maybe, we *could* date, if me going back to being Naruto doesn't send Mifune on a rampage, that is, in which case we'd probably have to cross blades," he added, "I admit that she does seem the serious honest type, but I don't know about the homely, I only saw her one day, after all," he admitted.

"Well, it's still a maybe!" Kuro replied, "Anyway…first stop before going back to Kumo: Kicking an old man's ass," and with that, silence finally fell in the sky.

**Author's notes.**

**Orochimaru is dead. The reason he went alone was because I doubted he'd go with someone else, while admitting his weaknesses, and thus he departed. On the other hand, Naruto's Doujutsu is revealed finally. I doubt it's a hacking eye, though it does bring nifty benefits…unluckily, only in the jutsus he has affinity on, or that have no affinity.**

**The techniques shown are those he'll need to battle the fourth, the first, which I affectionately call *A world of Snakes* basically is like an ice rink with him as the skater, using wind to accelerate himself, and reverse summons of the snakes in question to puff and reappear. The reason *he* can do that is because he holds the summoning contract for snakes in his stomach, as you all well know/suspect, while the *home* is the Ryuchi cave, (So Naruto has a quick-escape mean always available). The weaknesses of the technique are simple: he needs to focus wind chakra on his feet, thus barring him from using electrical techniques as long as he stays there.**

**IMPORTANT: Since I'm receiving *a lot* of reviews, even on different chapters, please note that I answer only those of the final chapter I posted, since I use the filter option. So if you have questions, just review on the last one…(Unless I actually answered some questions on the chapters to come, at the end, like *Dattebayo/dattebane* and *Samui/Mabui secretary***

**On another note, time for answers!**

**Q&A**

**Wyrtha: first off, thanks! Really, thank you for taking time to review so fully all my chapters, I really appreciate it, for distances, I simply started with a *one month from Kumo to Waves* thing, that then went, once seeing how it should have been in straight line towards Suna to a *two months trips*, by flight sure, they'd be faster, but they didn't travel in a straight line, instead taking a detour straight south, and then west. Thus increasing their time.**

**Next chapter will probably deal with a lot of the questions that have been asked, so there's no need for me to answer now. Most importantly…yes, Sasuke is in for a world of pain…and this is actually a nice play on words that is making me jiddy.**


	26. SH: Slaughtering

**Extremely long chapter, with battles, many things happen at the same time, and some events transpire into other's *sections*. Take note of this while reading.**

Twenty-sixth chapter

Kakashi read the letter that Pakkun had delivered to him slowly. Staring at the contents, wide-eyed, he couldn't help but feel the need to turn his gaze to the sleeping form of Rin, next to him, in his bed.

_Kakashi-sensei, a storm is coming on Konoha's one-eyed mummy, he betrayed his word, and used the bottle of nine pickles to his ends, taking the nine pickles for himself, and not uttering a word. As Iron will face him, snake might come along, and whirlpool will have revenge…find a way to have everyone you trust grouped together in a single place by the last day of the month, possibly far from the mummy._

_Ps: I hope I don't have to babysit you through code-talking._

Actually, Kakashi thought even a kid would understand said *Code-writing* but he said nothing, as he slowly tore the scroll to pieces, before standing up to carefully walk over the small kitchen corner, to burn it under a controlled flame, before preparing coffee. It was going to be a long day ahead of him.

Asuma was a must, being the son of the Third Hokage, he had truly hated the guts out of Danzo since he had been inserted in the position, but had said nothing, as there was no way out of it, after what Minato had done. Asuma would have brought Kurenai, the red-eyed woman, and then, probably, they'd have to convince her to bring her students, but Shino and Kiba would probably take the bait, if it revolved around Naruto. *Whirlpool* will have revenge was something that made the silver-haired Jounin weary nevertheless, as it seemed that the only reason to *bulk* a large number of Konoha's shinobi in a single place reeked of trap. He probably wouldn't have even *thought* about doing it, but he had a hunch that *snake* was referring to Kuro and his company…and that the case, then it might truly turn messy for Konoha. Naruto was keeping his words though, if the words in the letter were correct, Naruto had been used by Danzo and then had been discarded, after sealing the nine tails elsewhere. Still, he'd better watch out for Danzo's associate. First thing was warning Asuma, then Gai, who'd be even easier to convince…with a conjoint training field exercise! That would work, they just had to set a week, propose it to Danzo as a way to strengthen the military bonds, by having students and professors and even their clans work along, and probably that would leave Konoha nearly empty even of the civilians, who'd come along to watch.

_Why stop there? A…A sport festival! That's the right idea!_ Kakashi was sure that Gai would yell something about him been extremely youthful, but he actually didn't want to lose his own face about proposing it…so he'd need the approval of the other Jounin-senseis.

Danzo would probably approve, but not be present the entire day, as, after all, he loathed that sort of stuff, and some of his Root operatives *might* remain to stand guard, which would both be good, for Naruto, and bad at the same time, if he planned on speaking to them before…still, it was a good plan. He gave himself a mental pat on the head for having thought about it, and a bigger than normal coffee cup with biscuits.

"So…what have you been thinking about, that you're taking a biscuit?" Rin queried, still half sleepy.

"Something awesome," Kakashi replied with a small grin, as he slowly dressed up.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Rin muttered to herself, before turning around to sleep some more. They weren't waiting for her in the hospital till noon, since she did the night shift.

"Oh you'll see," and with those words, Hatake Kakashi, dressed up, left the apartment from the window, to head off towards the training grounds, where he knew Gai would be.

Truth be told, if Tsunade herself had betted on the collocation of Gai in the mornings, even she, with all her bad luck, wouldn't have lost the bet. The training ground in which the *Sublime Green beast* of Konoha was had been specifically built for him, and the mad persons that thought like him. Meaning everything, in there, weighted at least on the hundred kilos, and that was the lightest stuff around, obviously.

"Yosh! Youthful rival!" Gai exclaimed, turning around with a bright and wide laugh, staring as Kakashi moved slowly closer to him.

"Gai, I can trust you, right?" Kakashi whispered, as he slowly closed the Icha-Icha book he had taken out for the duration of his dash.

"Obviously my dear rival!" Gai exclaimed out loud, "What's the matter Kakashi?" he whispered, narrowing his eyes as he moved closer.

"Promise me you won't tell anyone else it's my idea…" the silver-haired Jounin whispered back, looking with his eyes around nervously.

"What idea, Kakashi?" Gai queried, perplexed.

"I found out that the recent Genin recruits seem…a bit mopey, and in dear need of help," Kakashi hinted.

"If you say so, youthful rival, but what's your idea then? Don't make me so curious!"

"How about…a sport's festival? To increase the youthfulness," the word rolled out of Kakashi's tongue like thick tar, "and to make everyone understand the fire of youth?" as soon as he said that, Gai's eyes opened in shock, before smiling widely, tears falling freely down his eyes.

"YOSH! Finally the fires of youth have begun burning brightly into you! YOSH! We shall have one next week, no, tomorrow!" as he said that, Kakashi's eye turned to the smiley face.

"Why tomorrow? Let's do it at the end of the month…with everyone that wants to participate! Let's make it a grand festival…of youth!" as he finished speaking, Gai's eyes sparkled with pure untainted joy.

"That's why you're my rival, Kakashi! Your fire of youth is already rivaling mine! YOSH!" and with that, Gai actually dashed out, already thinking about fliers and getting permissions.

Kakashi sighed in relief…now that the hard work was delivered to someone else he'd just have to speak to Asuma by himself.

Meanwhile, in a casino, a certain drunken slug princess had been on her twenty-seventh consecutive…win.

"Shizune," Tsunade whispered, slowly, "please tell me it's not true," as she once more, her mouth agape in shock, pulled the clutch, Shizune squeezed Tonton strongly, as an eerily tense air was around the two. Even the normal patrons of the casino stood silent, as the twenty-eight win came in, a woman shrieked in despair, claiming apocalypse was looming near.

"Oh shut up! It's just…broken, yes," as Tsunade stood up, leaving, for once, the money behind, "Clearly broken!" she moved towards the exit, only to hear a trumpet and mechanized sound and a metallic voice that said.

"As the millionth client to leave without any money you win the grand prize! Ten millions ryos are yours!" at that, the Slug princess simply dashed away screaming, followed by Shizune, who was more likely strangling Tonton than actually holding him.

*Kumogakure*

To say A was livid was to say the sun was simply *lukewarm*, mostly, however, he was torn between doing what the letter received from Mabui said, and doing what his father's heart told him. He knew Naruto was no weak Genin, and heck, he suspected he'd be able to put up a nice fight even against B and A, but still, to outright challenge Danzo by ambushing him? It was a way to solve things without recurring to war, cut the head and the snake dies, but the fact that Naruto's head could pretty much become the one to roll didn't make him feel any better. He slowly stood up from the desk, tearing apart the letter and destroying it with a small controlled electrical surge, to make sure no trace remained of it.

He then swiftly, and nimbly, jumped out from his office window to catch some air, and avoid a headache about being *an irresponsible Raikage who leaves work halfway done* from Samui. He landed gently on the ground below, not even earning a bout of interest from the passerby who knew that the Raikage was used to those sorts of thing, when he didn't want to work, he simply wouldn't, and there wasn't much they could do to make him change his mind. He found himself being brought by his own feet towards the Hill of Snakes that was now mostly empty, and thus was the perfect hiding spot from his irate secretary. Some snakes still remained, to gather the clouds around the lightning farms, a feat that had granted a surplus of electricity and had made Kumo the first exporter of it towards the other countries, especially towards Konoha. Still, the letter had been specific. He'd send a messenger to the land of frost, to inform them to shut down the transformers that split the current into two branches, one heading towards the general direction of Otogakure, and the other towards Konoha. Konoha would stay in the dark for an entire week, probably, unless they had backup. Three years of strict alliance had made it sort of dependent on the electricity provided by Kumo. Without it, the city would go dark. The hospitals had backup generators, at least, A hoped they did, as he carefully made his way inside the caves, he stopped for a moment to stare at the statue that the snakes had made of Naruto. On one side, stood a boy with a small black snake in his hands, lulling it like it was a baby, staring at it with merciful eyes. On the other side was, in scale, obviously, a giant Kuro and the same boy standing on top of him, both in a position to pounce. Both sides were connected by their backs that sort of showed the duality between mercy and revenge.

"The kid's grown up so fast…I might give him the hat when he marries," as he finished speaking, he narrowed his eyes, as he realized that Shizuka had been tailing him, and was now silently standing by his side.

"Honorable Raikage-sama…might I inquire something?" she queried, with a polite tone.

"Yes, I know I should be working in my office right now," A replied, rolling his eyes, "Still, this is a nice place to stay," he added.

"No, my question concerned Toruna-san, actually," she replied, "Since it's my belief he stayed in Kumogakure for one month, under that circumstance, I can understand him having a room, even though it was in an apartment shared with key assets of your village," she added, "What I don't understand is why, since he left on a tracking mission of indefinite time schedule, he did not pack his stuff, and instead left it there," she pointed out, as the Raikage's eyes narrowed for a second, before shrugging.

"Maybe he liked the spot and is coming back?" he hazarded.

"Or maybe it can be coupled with your Nibi Jinchuuriki slip of the tongue about *Otouto* being stupid…and speaking of him like he was alive, when I know he's meant to be deceased…and if we add the fact he died three years ago, and that Toruna of the snakes appeared in the Iron lands one year ago…and that both have snakes companion that talk…" Shizuka's eyes carved themselves deeply into the Raikage's face, "I have to come to the inevitable understanding that your son and Toruna-san are the same person," as she finished talking, A sighed, nodding.

"Seems it was found out…"

"Why did he lie?" Shizuka muttered, "He could have come out alive, and…"

"He was kept for two years to train with the sage of snakes, and when he did come out, he was dropped in the Iron lands…furthermore, he *was* the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, and now he is no more. Guess why?" as the Raikage replied that, Shizuka's eyes bulged in shock…he couldn't just *stop* being a Jinchuuriki, you either were or you…

"He would have died! But he's not the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki…so…they removed it from him and he…survived it?" Shizuka was surprised, just how much did Toruna, or Naruto, defy the common conceptions?

"That he did, my boy's a hardheaded fool with a strong will," the Raikage replied, "still, now that you know," the Raikage's eyes narrowed, "What are you going to do?"

Shizuka's right hand went to her own chin, as she slowly took the time to think about it. Technically, while it was true that Naruto belonged to Kumo, he had sworn fealty to the land of iron, to her father, for as long as…

"When does *Toruna* of the snakes intend to die?" she whispered, recalling precisely what oath had the man sworn to her father.

"That is a secret I cannot part with," the Raikage replied.

"He's planning something dangerous, isn't it?" Shizuka muttered, "Something that might probably kill him in the end, that's why he didn't…No," the woman's eyes trembled in realization, "He can't be thinking that," she slowly added.

"What is *that*?" The Raikage replied, hoping she hadn't understood.

"He plans on extracting the Kyuubi and planting it in him!" she screeched, "That's suicide! My father wouldn't permit it, he…" her voice turned to a barely audible whisper, "he wouldn't be able to wage war to retrieve Toruna…because he'd become the Nine Tailed Jinchuuriki, who belongs to Kumogakure for the contract made…thus he'd be Naruto…and he'd be free from any and all contracts and obligation done by the land of iron…"

"If that's his plan, then that's his plan," the Raikage replied, well, better not tell her of the *middle* part of Toruna freeing the Kyuubi.

"You're not going to stop me from reporting this to my father, are you?" Shizuka queried, narrowing her eyes.

"Even if you *did* that, by the time he'd come over to stop him, my boy would have already gone through it all…he's smart like that," as the Raikage spoke with pride, turning his soft gaze to the statue once more, Shizuka muttered back in a low, and barely audible voice.

"Then I just have to go and stop him in person," and with those words, she dashed to the exit.

"Hey! You'll never reach him in time!" A yelled, "you don't even know *where* he is!"

As he heard no reply, the Raikage shrugged, the woman was just going to run for a while, realize it was futile, and move back to wait. There was no way she'd know where Naruto went. No way at all.

"Raikage-sama?" a voice called to him from the back, as he turned around to look into the eyes of Shiro-chan, the flying *stalker of the skies*, "Shizuka-san told me that Toruna asked to meet her, but forgot where in his message, why didn't you tell her he was heading to Konoha?"

At that, A paled just so slightly.

"Well…it takes a month to get there, there's no way at all she'd get there in time, and that's final," he muttered, to convince himself by also nodding.

"By the way, Samui-san is just behind me, wishing to talk with you, Raikage-sama," Shiro politely added, before flying out of the way, so that the blond busty secretary could heel-kick the Raikage in the face, and pull him back to the office, holding onto the Hokage's vest collar.

*Team Akatsuki*

Kushina was ready: she had instructed Katsumi not to open the door to strangers, to listen to Konan-san, and to be a good girl. The group was strangely a bit *packed*, as Nagato had to be brought by two of his Paths, while the others surrounded the group, that was composed of her, Minato, Itachi and a strange blue-skinned fish guy who presented himself as Kisame.

"Itachi-kun!" Kushina exclaimed, as they had begun their running through the trees, as Amegakure was just a month's time away from Konoha.

"Uzumaki-san?" Itachi queried back, realizing just then who the red-haired woman was, and giving a perplexed look to Minato, who narrowed his eyes, and to Nagato, who slowly nodded.

"Call me Kushina-san! Why did you leave the village? Did Danzo force you out?" as she queried that, Itachi's eyes slowly turned to the road in front of them.

"I…you could say that," he replied, emotionless.

"Don't worry then, 'ttebayo! We're going to kick his ass when we get to him!" as Kushina exclaimed that, Kisame actually smirked, not saying a word. They had been briefed about the *peculiar* condition of the woman, and for that, they kept their mouth shut. Still, as they travelled towards their destination, something was telling the fish man that something, somewhere, was definitively wrong.

Back in Amegakure, precisely where the statue used to seal the bijuus stood, a man clad in white and black appeared straight in front of its open mouth, in a small puff of smoke, his eyes a dark blue color bordering the purple, with small white and black scales on his cheeks, his hair dirt blond and red stained. Letting the small snake slither to his ear, out from the statue's mouth, he listened carefully to all the information he had to deliver.

"When it rains…it pours," Naruto whispered, his eyes narrowing as the snake finished hissing to him the last of the words. A pity for the Akatsuki, not to check the statue's teeth, a boon for him, that they used the statue to communicate great distances too.

The room he was in was dark, and cramped, probably somewhere deep down Amegakure, with but a metal door as an exit.

"Well…who am I to say no to free chaos?" he whispered, as he turned his gaze to the statue, a wicked grin on his face. If he could destroy it…Akatsuki would certainly yell in pain for the rest of their lives. He slowly got his hand to a bundle of explosive notes, but just as he grabbed them, somebody yelled.

"I wouldn't do it if I were you!" a man clad in an orange spiral mask suddenly appeared in front of Naruto, making the snake sage jump backwards, his eyes staring deeply into the masked figure, as the explosive tags went off, they disappeared, like engulfed by some sort of vacuum hole in the air.

"Now, now, Tobi's a good boy you know? No making Tobi explode," the masked man spoke again, with a strangely childish voice.

"You're wearing the Akatsuki's clothes," Toruna replied, "You aren't out to kill me?"

"I must say, why would I!" Tobi exclaimed, feigning shock, "You're damn strong! You should be recruited! Uncle Tobi wants you for Akatsuki!" as he said that, he pointed his right finger towards Toruna, who moved to the side by instinct, avoiding what looked like a Senbon-needle.

"Strange, I thought the leader…was this *Pain-sama*, and nice try, by the way," Toruna replied with a smirk, his palms opening up and closing.

"So the snake was a mean for you to spy here, huh?" Tobi's voice slowly lost his childish tone.

"I speak snake-tongue, so as I take it, you knew of the snake…what do you want from me?" Toruna replied, slowly letting his right hand descend to his waist, where a Ninjato stood in wait.

"I already said it! I want you in Akatsuki! Capturing Bijuus would be much more fun, with an entire loving family!" as he finished those words, anacondas emerged from Toruna's back, throwing wind enhanced blades at Tobi, who simply let them pass through him, as the statue behind him…moved.

"Not what I was expecting! Well, can't always win!" The masked man exclaimed that, as Toruna dashed backwards, the statue clashed down its hands, dust and dirt flying as Tobi dashed forward, with a speed that Toruna could barely keep up with, as electricity cackled through his body, to enhance his speed and reflexes, he still had troubles, just how fast was the man?

"Raiton no Yoroi huh? Damn how I hate that stuff," Tobi muttered, as suddenly, a sort of black hole appeared right next to Toruna's shoulder, who threw a snake to the side from his forearm, teleporting there in an instant, and avoiding the sucking motion.

"That's just like the Hiraishin! Damn you!" Tobi whined, "This is just not fair at all! Stay still!" as chakra chains erupted from the statue flying with blinding speed towards Toruna, the snake sage did the only thing possible.

He replied with chains.

"Chakra Chains Barrier!" as chains sprouted from Toruna's back, closing himself in a small dome, Tobi looked at the man, narrowing his gaze.

"You're still here?" Tobi muttered, "Why are you still here?" Tobi had thought the man had arrived through a teleportation jutsu that thus should have been sealed when he had revealed himself to the man in black and white. Instead…it was a reverse summoning effect, which meant it wasn't been blocked by the room, since, after all, the statue itself was a summoned creature.

"Oh, so you realized…well, I just wanted to…understand the situation," as the word *understand* was stressed, Toruna dispersed in smoke, leaving a puzzled masked man.

Just what was the man's game? And *He* thought *he* had the game set. Just what…what was going on?

*Team Jiraiya*

"Can I neuter him?" Anko whined, pointing with her Kunai at the chained up form of Sasuke, who stood on C's shoulder, while she used her free hand to better rein in Tayuya, the girl was heavy.

"No, you cannot," C replied, as he was the one holding Sasuke, chained up and ball-gagged.

"Can I throw a kunai through his…" as the purple-haired Kunoichi tried again, with a childish tone, Jiraiya sighed, while making sure that Kabuto, on his shoulder, stayed tied, blinded, and ball gagged.

"Only when we get in Konoha!" he exclaimed, in the end, making Sasuke's eyes bulge in shock: the nerve of the guy!

"Mpfh!" The Uchiha muffled, as he had a dirty piece of clothing in his mouth, to keep him from yelling.

"He's saying he'd like a kunai with an explosive tag attached," Anko said, "possibly also piercing his shoulder, and sending him to the hospital for a couple of weeks with third degrees burn on the vast majority of his body," she slowly muttered, anger seething out from each of her words.

"I think there's a story there," Jiraiya said, slowly, "but he's needed alive. At the current speed, we'd arrive by the end of the month, you know?"

"If Konoha hasn't burned to the ground with Atsui's *Hot* catchphrases…then there is nothing to fear in one more month," C replied, with a sigh.

"Mpfh!" Tayuya muffled, trying her best to free herself.

"Well, I could knock these two out with drugs though," C pondered, "I do have some neurotoxin that should paralyze them completely…" as he hinted that, he suddenly added, "though it also removes bowel control…"

At that notion, both salamis stood very, very, still.

"Seems they understood the lesson," Jiraiya muttered, "like this guy here, I mean, he's been basically quiet since departure..." as the Toad Sage turned around to face at Kabuto's face, he raised a puzzled eyebrow, before depositing him on the ground, to check on his pulse, "No wonder…he's dead!"

"What!" Anko exclaimed surprised, "C! You haven't felt anything?" she yelled, turning to the medic-nin, who narrowed his eyes.

"Can't be, I'm feeling his chakra right now…" as he moved closer, dropping Sasuke on the ground, the Uchiha tried to slowly roll away, only to feel the sharp heel of Anko on his back.

"No moving little worm or I'll crush your spine," she whispered with a gleeful tone.

"He's not right," C whispered, checking onto the body, "there's no heart, no beat, no blood movement…it's a corpse…but with chakra," he added, "Must be a forbidden jutsu of sort…he replaced himself with a corpse!"

"When would that bastard manage such a thing!" Anko yelled, as she slightly pushed a bit more of her weight on the Uchiha.

"Probably when we attacked them in the hideout, he mustn't have been completely suppressed," C replied, as Jiraiya's gaze turned to the two remaining people.

"Well, let's just hope neither of our two remaining prisoners escape, it wouldn't be funny at all," with those words, the Toad hermit left the body there, starting once more their trek.

*Katsumi*

"Konan-san!" Katsumi exclaimed, looking at the elder woman being thrown against the ground repeatedly. The man in question stood tall, wearing white and black clothes, and his gaze was mostly murderous.

"Epsilon reporting in," the man buzzed to the wireless radio, "Objective one located," it slowly added, before jumping to the side, avoiding papers coming at him as sharp as shurikens, while the Konan on the ground turned to slips of papers.

"Kami Bunshin ? Correcting previous statement: Need backup," as the man spoke slowly, he sidestepped, before dashing out of the way to avoid the explosive tags attached to the last sent shurikens.

"Katsumi-chan! Get the kids in the safe house!" Konan exclaimed to the red-haired girl, who was whimpering at the scene. She was a ninja, she knew she could fight him, but then…why was she afraid to even move a finger?

"No use having her move, I blocked her with Kanashibari no Jutsu," the man explained with a smirk, disappearing in a swirling of dust, only to try and punch Konan, the real one, on the side of the face, but instead seeing paper appear on her cheek.

"Shikigami no Mai!" as Konan's body turned completely into paper, it folded into shurikens dashing against the man, who, caught by surprise, was hit, dispersing in smoke. Just as he did, Katsumi found that she was able to breathe and move again, as the paper returned to bundle together in the form of the elder woman, Konan began running towards her, yelling.

"Katsumi GET DOWN!" she didn't understand why, and that second, that simple second of distraction, was more than enough for Toruna to place his katana in front of the girl's neck, while Gamma touched the girl's head for a second, before seeing her faint.

"She's with us now," the two perfectly similar men spoke, as a blast of fire created a wall before them, and the woman, before they seemingly disappeared.

"Damn it!" was all that the blue haired woman could say, before putting down the fire with large slips of paper. How could the man go by unnoticed by the rain? How could he actually manage that feat?

*Above in the skies*

"Kuro, my dear friend, we are geniuses," Naruto muttered, as Gamma and Toruna rolled their eyes over, taking out cards to play, while Katsumi stood, pretty much, tied against the snake's back.

"I take it you're enjoying this…position of knowledge?" Kuro replied with a chuckled hiss.

"I'd say…I do. The youngling told me more than enough about…their plans and I've now got some nifty things to learn, for future references…" as he said that, Gamma shrugged.

"No Genjutsus…I feel saddened," he pointed out, as Toruna spat out, in the air, letting the drop of saliva fall downwards.

"Meh, Kenjutsu needs a bit more practice too," as the man with the Katana spoke, who none other was than Naruto's clone, he slowly queried, his eyes narrowing towards Naruto, "do you have any tens?"

"Take from the deck," Naruto replied with a chuckle, "anyway, think if I hadn't sent that youngling in the statue's mouth! I'd be going at full speed towards Konoha, when there are already four Akatsuki members going there! Among which that man and that woman!" as he pointed that out, he looked towards Gamma, querying.

"Do you have any nines?" Gamma sighed, handing it over, so that Naruto could complete a couple.

"So, do you think she's going to pursue?" Toruna butted in, as Naruto had shook his head to his other clone, before taking on a thoughtful face, before replying.

"I don't think so, we're going too fast for her, we'll pretty much arrive in Konoha after the destruction, probably…to think those fools believe the nine tails is there! Ah! I'm sure it's going to be the experience of a lifetime! A pity I won't probably be there to watch it!" as much as Naruto chuckled, Kuro hissed back.

"What about Kakashi-san and the others?" at that, the blond-spiked man replied with a small murmur.

"They're going to be fine, all in one place, far from Danzo…and they *all* want to see Danzo," he added, "and with that woman there…they wouldn't dare attack Konoha directly…isn't that right Katsumi-chan?" as Naruto queried that with an overly sarcastic tone, towards the fainted girl, "Don't you just LOVE to know that your mother is treated with silk gloves and not told many, important, truths? Oh…How I'm going to enjoy it…maybe I should prepare a speech!" as he cackled, Toruna and Gamma stared at each other with a sigh.

"He's lost it," they both nodded, as they decided, for once, to disperse on their own. No use arguing with themselves. Naruto slowly stared at the knocked out form of Katsumi, reminiscing her previous boasts.

_I'll make you trust me, Dattebayo!_ Was that what she said? Well, if only she hadn't gone completely mad with Orochimaru, maybe, thinking back, he should have given her a chance. As he slowly moved to look at her cursed seal, he narrowed his eyes slightly. There wasn't one, on her shoulder, but there *was* something that seemingly did its best to remain invisible.

"Kuro," Naruto hissed slowly.

"Yes?" the black snake replied, as he had nearly dozed off because of the boring work of flying around.

"We're going to be a bit late on the schedule," he pointed out.

"Why?" Kuro queried, perplexed at such a serious tone. The sky was blue, there were no clouds, having left Amegakure, and all in all it was a pretty peaceful sky, the ideal one for a floating nap.

"Seals," was what Naruto replied, "I'll need the Ryuchi cave equipment," was what he added, moments later, "a pity we don't have any snakes in Konoha, otherwise I could take all the time I wanted," as he finished saying that, Kuro started to whistle, like a person who's hiding something.

"Wait a minute…we have someone there?" Naruto queried, once more, perplexed.

"We do…remember Lee?" at that, Naruto's eyes bulged in surprise.

"But…it's been three years! The snake…he should have…"

"He found himself cozy as a belt, what can I say?" Kuro replied, "Stubborn as a mule too, refused to leave. So I suppose…"

"Kuro, and why didn't you tell me this before?" A tick mark appeared on Naruto's head.

"You needed some rest?" Kuro hazarded.

"KURO!"

"What! It's the truth! Look at you going psycho with your clones! They're clones! They don't have different personalities!" Kuro replied with a worried hiss.

"Well, this changes everything. Let's go to Ryuchi cave!" and with those words, Naruto grabbed Katsumi by the neck, before dispersing in smoke with her and Kuro, to reappear, moments later, in the cave's main hall, where Yoru stood in front of a strategic map of Konoha, eying it with clinical eyes, as he moved, with his tail, small and larger pebbles.

"So, Tabako, you will take first and second platoon, and march straight ahead to the Root headquarters, Saki told you their location," as he pointed that out, the rattlesnake nodded, before taking a puff of smoke and replying.

"Me and the S team would solve the problem in a blast, you know!"

"Yeah, but we don't want blasts, we want something quick and clean," Yoru replied.

"Fine, what about the spearhead?" Tabako muttered, "And who's going to play distraction and bait?"

"There will be no need for that," Naruto muttered, "the letter has been sent, Danzo will be, at the end of the month, here," as he pointed to the more wide, and general map, of the elemental countries, his finger stopped a brief distance away from Konoha, "by the time he arrives, a clone will handle him for a while, and I'll take the necessary steps to prepare Konoha well to his return," he slowly added.

"Aw, and here I was: wanting to crush him together with Scaly-chan," Yoru replied with a pout, as a larger puff of smoke revealed Kuro, having appeared straight next to the shogi chessboard, where Hakuja, slowly, made a move.

"Already back and already playing?" Kuro groaned, as he moved another pawn.

"Yes, I simply *must* defeat you more…it's exciting," he replied.

"Anyway, the Akatsuki will be moving their leader, Itachi, a certain Kisame, Uzumaki…Kushina," at that, Yoru's face bulged in shock, "and *that* man too, to reach Konoha for the nine-tails," at those words, hisses became more pronounced in the cave, as the news was related to the deeper levels.

"So…they'll be the spearhead? It's just what, five persons?" Tabako queried, perplexed.

"That man destroyed an entire army of Iwagakure ninjas, that woman is nearly undying last I checked, Itachi is…troublesome," A Nara sneezed, somewhere, "Kisame is a Kenjutsu user, definitively, and their leader…I can only suspect it's that strange man with the ring-like eyes I met in the forest of Hot spring country," as he finished speaking, Hakuja butted in the conversation.

"Rinnegan," he said, cryptically.

"Hakuja-san?" Naruto queried back, not understanding, as he let go of Katsumi's neck, seeing the girl's face was turning slightly blue from his hold.

"Rinnegan, the evolution of the Sharingan, the eyes the sage of the six paths possessed," as the snake spoke slowly, he added, "I never told you about the origin of Sages, did I?"

"No, you never did," Naruto replied, perplexed.

"Well…in the beginning," as Hakuja began explaining in a sort of serious, melodramatic voice, he let a puff of smoke circle the hall, to show off images, together with his words, "Was Chaos," as he said that, the smoke showed off fire and steel, clashing of metal and blood splattering around, "the demons roared and soared the night and the day sky, both locked in deadly fights, the ground shattered, under the might of beings too powerful, for mortal to even dare to graze," as he spoke, the show of how small humans were, to the demons, made Naruto cringe, those things were big, "until he came along…the Jubi," with those words, a demon, with ten tails and a central eye, that seemed a rinnegan with nine sharingan-like tomoes, and its form was massive, and black as if made of pure dark chakra and malice, "and with that demon, chaos found the need for order, as nothing would have remained otherwise," as Hakuja said that, the scene showed demons in a sort of *explaining* like motion to humans, and then the humans themselves doing feats like conjuring fire, or cracking earth, like the demon could do, "then a man learnt more than others did, and he became known as the sage of the six paths," with those words, the scene changed to a man with spiked hair, a wide white cloak on his back, with the symbol for *9* etched on his collar, "Asura, Deva, Human, Naraka, Outer and Preta," with each of those words, the realm they took care of appeared in the smoke, "and he battled the Jubi for nine days and nine nights, until in the end, he emerged victorious…sealing the strongest of all demons within himself," at those words, Naruto's skin got goose bumps, thinking about having something worse than the Kyuubi inside, "and then…then he gave his knowledge freely to the man who wished to learn it, teaching them the arts of channeling and controlling chakra, and from him, two clans were born, the Senju, from his younger son, and the Uchiha, from his eldest," Hakuja showed in the smoke two figures, one with a sort of staff, and another with a sword, "the sage, knowing death was near, and with it, the Jubi's freedom, decided to separate it into nine others tailed beasts…Ichibi, Nibi, Sanbi, Yonbi, Gobi, Rokubi, Nanabi, Hachibi, Kyuubi," at those words, the nine's shadows appeared in the smoke, "and then they were gifted to the other villages, to make peace."

As he finished speaking, Naruto took word, albeit in a whisper.

"Peace didn't last, I take it?"

"It did not," Hakuja smirked, "for power is a fickle thing, the more you have, the more you seek, and wars erupted for hatred, jealousy, anger, rage, injustices or justices, blood revenges, for fun or even for grief, it didn't matter, as wars upon wars washed upon the elemental countries, bringing with them pain, sufferance, famine and deaths," as the white snake finished talking, he eyed Naruto, with an amused grin, "and now, let me tell you something…interesting," he said, with his grin becoming wider, wide enough to show his fangs, "that idiot of the toad's sage foretold a prophecy, that I heard of too, years ago, it spoke of the Yogen no Ko, the child of the prophecy, the one destined to train under the toad Sannin Jiraiya and emerge from it, with his choices, either as the savior of the shinobi world, or as it destructor," Hakuja's eyes narrowed, as he stared deep into Naruto's own, "bringing forth a revolution that would wake the very same foundations and beliefs of the world…so, Naruto…do you think you are the Yogen no Ko?" at the question, Naruto stood shocked, mouth agape, what was that about a prophecy?  
"So? You have already changed the way of snakes, a feat many deemed impossible! You have survived the bites and the training of Hakuja sennin himself, the great white snake sage! You have survived the extraction of a tailed beast, and no matter how deep your despair has run, you have always emerged victorious…so tell me, Naruto! Tell me what is your thought on the matter!" as he spoke, with excitement in his voice, Kuro stared in silence between the two, as Yoru also slowly, but surely, moved to the side…better not stand in the way, no matter *what* was going to happen.

"I don't know," Naruto whispered back, looking at both of his hands, covered in the bite marks of snakes, "I truly do not know if prophecies are meant to be taken for granted, or not…but I know this: I'll stick through my own beliefs until the very end, and if the world wants to, then he will follow my steps, or be crushed under my power if it dares oppose my will! I may not be the strongest ninja, or the smartest, but I will face the road ahead of me without changing its course! Let my enemies cringe and wake in fear, let my friends' courage be redoubled, let the FIRE OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHTLY ON US ALL as Naruto, son of A, the Snake Sage, marches forward!" as he finished speaking, Hakuja grinned.

"Charging in blindly, huh? I like the style…oh if I like the style," and with those words, the white sage snake stole the last shogi piece from Kuro, who was staring, perplexed, at Naruto.

"By the way, I won this match too Kuro," as Hakuja pointed that out, Kuro whined.

"That's cheating! I saw you this time!"

Naruto, hearing that…sighed in relief, as he grabbed the girl by the arm, the still fainted girl that was his *sister*, and brought her, by moving her on his right shoulder, into the deeper areas of Ryuchi cave, where, turning a corner, he was tackled by a mass of purple hair in a green scaled battle armor.

"And where do you think *you* are going?" Naruto queried, raising an eyebrow, as he stared at the woman, Saki, in what looked like one of those old battle armor worn in the first shinobi wars…certainly a relic from the past, no doubt, there were hundreds of those things on the ground, and in the caves.

"Uncle! We're going to Konoha's aid, right?" she queried, her eyes sparkling with hope, as she looked at the girl on her uncle's back with a perplexed expression, not understanding who she was and why she was there.

"No, Saki, *I* am going to Konoha's aid," Kakashi was Konoha, for what it mattered to Naruto, and Kiba, and Shino, and Shino's family, and Kiba's family then, and there was also Gai and Lee, and thus their families too, and then maybe Sakura and Yakumo, so their families also…and so…yeah, Konoha in a certain sense, but not *all* of Konoha, "You are still behind with your homework, last time Zeta checked," where Zeta was the clone specifically set on making the young girl study more common things, things Root program didn't cover, like *NO, you cannot bath together with your uncle* and things like that.

"Homework is stupid!" Saki pouted, "I want to help uncle and defend Konoha!" as Naruto sighed, he ruffled the woman's hair, before whispering back to her, in a gentle and caring tone.

"Listen Saki…it seems I'll be facing really tough opponents, and they all want you, to kill you, and I don't want that to happen," he slowly let go of ruffling her hair, as Saki's gaze had gone downwards, toward the ground, as her eyes had become sorrowful, "I promise I'll find your parents, and protect them, but you must promise me, promise me you won't come after me," Saki's fists clenched, as she turned around, running away, tears in her eyes, leaving her *Baka Uncle* in the corridor of the caves, to sigh, and move towards the room he used for seals.

Dropping with little grace the girl on the floor, he was surprised to see her jolt up with a cry, aiming with her right fist at his right leg. Only to see said right leg's knee bend, so that the right leg foot could hit her on the chest, bringing her on the ground, both her arms flailing to free herself from the strength of the kick that was grounding her down.

"My patience is thin," Naruto hissed slowly, "Trust me, I'm doing this because I want no second thoughts, later on, you should just be lucky Saki's here to lighten my mood," he added, slowly letting go of his right foot, so that Katsumi could, at least, breath, as she winced for the pain of the her ribs, not broken, but maybe cracked, maybe.

"Who are you?" She croaked out, coughing on the ground.

"You didn't hear? I am Naruto, son of A, future Raikage of Kumogakure, the Sage of snakes, the leader of the snake-nins, the hermit of Ryuchi cave, the…maybe child of the prophecy, if you really wish to know it, and I'm also Toruna of the snakes, the Tracker of the iron lands, the fangs of the Samurais, the Wolf-pelt clad underwear seeker…albeit the last one is actually fictitious, and that's final," as he finished speaking, a snake sprouted from his left forearm, biting swiftly onto Katsumi's shoulder, and before she could even scream, she felt her body go numb.

"I'll remove your seals…then we'll have another talk," and with those words, darkness descended on the girl.

*Konoha – End of the Month*

"The sport's festival will now begin!" as the eerily cheery voice of Maito Gai boomed, the crowd cheered, as the spot chosen had been a bit out of Konoha, and, as Kakashi had expected, Danzo had simply showed up in the first two minutes, said a brief, annoyed speech, and had then gone off…elsewhere, like something was bothering him. To have Danzo show bother, and annoyance, meant that this had been a pretty good idea. At least, that was the silver-haired Jounin's thought, as he stared at Asuma, and Kurenai, their respective left and right legs tied together, at the *Couple competition*, while on his side, he had Rin, who was, quite actually, whispering something in his ear.

"We win, or I swear to Kami I will burn off your Icha-Icha Violence Redux edition," as she slowly smiled to him with a wicked grin, at least for Kakashi, the Jounin sensei nodded, before slowly moving his hand to his forehead protector…It was a *ninja* Sport's festival.

Meanwhile, up on the balconies, Lee stood wearing his snake-belt that he had never dropped once in his life, a symbol of youthfulness that Naruto had gifted him and that he had kept no matter the situation! Furthermore, it was green, and green was the color of youth! Next to him, Tenten stood rolling her eyes, as Neji was, for once, silent right next to her, the boy's situation had gone better, after having lasted where a main house member had not, and thus he was granted the *honor* to train with the main house's leader, who had, obviously, trained him harshly, but justly. Still, Tenten couldn't help but wonder if it was true, that Kakashi-sensei knew Toruna of the snakes, at least, Ino, who was training with Rin, had heard that during his travel to Kumogakure, he had met the man, and since he hadn't taken autographs from him, Rin had dropped the silver haired Jounin on the couch for weeks, before finally conceding that *it was to be expected*.

Another team was instead on the furthest up rows, where a lazy Nara was sighing heavily, as Ino was pouting to Chouji to stop eating without restraints, and Choja, the Akimichi's clan leader, was laughing out hard as he began eating a roasted pork together with his son, claiming *he had to grow*. Shikamaru slightly tensed, when he realized the Root guards, assigned for the protection of the civilians, and for keeping order during said festival, slowly moved out. Even Shikaku, his father, thought the same, but sighed, deeming it too troublesome to investigate.

In the first rows, Hinata Hyuga, together with Shino and Kiba, were watching their sensei stretch together with Asuma, her boyfriend, and while Shino was staying silent, as always, he slowly got up, after a fly touched his nose, and excused himself for the bathroom. Hinata said nothing, as she kept staring, slightly blushing, at Kiba's antics and boasting, to the point where his voice was the only thing heard on that side of the stadium. Atsui, on the other hand, stood together with a couple of Genins from Kumo who had been selected as exchanged shinobis, watching without much interest the sport festival…it wasn't hot at all if he couldn't use his hot catchphrases to catch some hottie!

On another side of the built from scratch camp, stood a group of hooded Anbu figures, all wearing different masks, but, except from that, kept to themselves in the shadows under the rows of seated civilians. Slowly, one of them let a small snake slither freely, while the others, nodding, dashed away. It was a brief moment, before finally, the festival began.

"First program of the day! Couple running! FOR THE FIRE OF YOUTH to shine brightly on us all!" It was a moment, actually. Kakashi began running, his sharingan spinning widely, and maybe that, that was the reason he saw the attack coming, and managed to push Rin to the side, to avoid the growling giant three headed dog that had appeared in the middle of the training ground, and its fiery molten breath.

Screams soon followed, instead of the normal cheers, as Kakashi nimbly cut the rope tying his leg to that of Rin, who swiftly moved behind him.

Kakashi could only tense, seeing how, in the far off distance, smoke was rising, and, mostly, clashes and fights seemed to be going off a bit everywhere around him. For the moment, however, he had to take care of the three-headed dog.

Maito Gai was already on it, however, pouncing on the foul un-youthful beast, as Asuma and Kurenai were looking perplexed at Kakashi, who had a scowl on his face.

_Naruto…if this is your doing…_

He couldn't keep thinking about it, however, as he swiftly acted to keep the beast away from the civilians.

"Doton: Doryūheki!" as walls of earth rose, boxing him in, just as Gai managed swiftly to kick one of its head to oblivion, a giant centipede crawled its way into the stadium, forcing Asuma to charge at it, his weapons charged with wind chakra affinity.

On a nearby observation post, Kushina stood biting her lower lip, she didn't want this, but they needed a distraction to lure Danzo out.

"Where do you think Danzo is, Kisame-san?" as Kisame had been paired with the red-haired woman, the half-shark couldn't help but sigh.

"I don't know, Uzumaki-san, but he can't be far off…Animal path is taking care of stirring things up in the village," at the frown of Kushina, he added, slowly, "obviously without making harm to Hospitals or things like that…"

"Good, we're here for Danzo, and only for him," as she replied that, she turned back to her spyglass, looking at the centipede being slashed into pieces by wind-blades from Asuma's own punch-daggers.

"Kisame-san, how long have you been in the business of hunting missing-nins?" as Kushina queried that, the missing-nin himself from Kirigakure couldn't help but make a small grin.

"Since a while, actually I was brought in nearly at the same time as Itachi," as he replied that, the red-haired woman nodded, not saying anything else.

Further away from them, more precisely at Konoha's gates, the Animal path dashed forward, passing through the village like a flash of robes, being closely followed, after a brief moment, by the gate's guards, who yelled for him to stop.

"Stop! Identify yourself!" as Izumo yelled that, the Animal path touched the ground briefly, allowing the Asura path and Preta path to appear, the first simply brought his forearms forward, letting missiles emerge from the sockets within his very own arms, missiles that fired blindly upon the pursuers and the buildings, exploding upon impact and leaving rubble and charred corpses behind.

*Preta path and Asura path*

The Preta path, on the other hand, swiftly moved to guard the Asura from a long range wind blade attack, as Hayate albeit coughing slightly, came into view.

"There's more than one intruder! Alert the central command!" as an Anbu dashed off to obey, the recently appointed Anbu Team commander Hayate Gekko stared at the two men, clad in robes, and swiftly moved to the side, avoiding a mechanical chainsaw from the Asura path, before unsheathing his own blade, trying to move closer to attack, only to be brought backwards by a strong tug at the neck, courtesy of Yugao.

"Not dying on me Hayate!" just as she finished exclaiming that, truth be told, chainsaws flickered from the Asura's path center, and would have probably cut the man in half, had he kept on the charge. The two, husband and wife, stared at the two beings with ringed-eyes, before swiftly sidestepping to avoid what looked like a seemingly mad charge from the bulkier man, until his head opened with a click, revealing his skull nothing more than a metal sphere, containing what seemed like a bright blue light, that flashed in less than a moment, making an explosion that blinded both Konoha's Anbus, but, while sending them further back from the air pressure and the heat, didn't outright kill them, as Yugao fell on the ground holding her right arm, so too did Hayate, albeit his was the left arm. The reason they hadn't been reduced to cinders was that they had been pulled away by a strange force that had grabbed them at the neck area, and had then disappeared, nothing more than a fleeting moment, still, they weren't going to complain.

"You two! Regroup at the Hokage's monument!" a Wolf-masked Anbu yelled at the two, from a rooftop nearby that was still on its walls, "Order Code Black Omega-One!" as he finished giving off, like it was nothing, the highest possible level of threat, reachable by Konoha's tight security, the Preta Path appeared in a blink behind him, hitting him to the side, where however it impacted against armguards, green scaled armguards, that lessened the blow.

Yugao bit her lip, she'd normally ask for an identification number, but the fact that the other, clearly a puppeteer, invader had the ability to seemingly incinerate anything at close range…in a moment, the man in question produced six arms from within, all twisted in different forms and ways, all clearly mechanical.

"Yugao, you heard the man?" Hayate said, as he was the one on the opposite side: she was the one who could dash off first, reach it first.

"Hayate, get over here and then we'll go together: I'll cover you," as soon as the purple haired Anbu said that, swirling through hand signs, to launch a fire stream from her mouth, so did Hayate move, hoping it would be enough of a cover. He was making it, actually, his foots one after the other were dashing swiftly, ignoring the pain in his bruised arm, but just as he was near her, just as he was nearing her, a fizzling sound caught his attention, he turned just in time to see missiles launched at them from the path's arms, avoiding the fire stream. They'd hit their spot, tearing them both to splinters, unless he did something, as Yugao was too concentrated on her technique, and there was little time, seconds maybe.

So he did the only thing he could: he pushed her away with sheer speed of the wind chakra, as her eyes darted with shock and surprise towards Hayate, the man simply gave her a small smile, maybe he'd have lip-spoken something cheesy, but he couldn't, he couldn't because the missiles impacted on his back, turning his body to a bloody mess of ashes, as Yugao instead was thrown away, to roll on the ground, her face pale, as she stared at the small crater that once was her husband.

Up above, the Preta Path was finding this Wolf-mask quite a problematic existence. He was good at dodging, his armor was tough, and it appeared he had some sort of way to deaden the hits, as attacks that would have outright crushed his hands, or blows that would have splintered his ribcage simply seemed to roll off unscathed.

"Who are you?" The Preta path asked, as the man simply seemed to be toying with him, but he didn't reply, he simply kept silent, before the explosion went off near them, and, as if on cue, he was no longer in front of the Preta path, instead he was down below, retrieving the broken amass of blood and bones that once was Hayate Gekko, disappearing the next second with him. This did leave the Preta path, and by consequence, Nagato, puzzled. Just who was the man in question?

Yugao on the other hand screamed after a moment, not having seen the body of her husband being thrown among a pile of rubble to the side, she had instead thought he'd been pulverized by the explosion. She was about to charge in, when a Cat-masked Anbu grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Obey your orders, Yugao Uzuki!" he snarled, pushing her back, "This isn't an enemy for you! Retreat to the Hokage Monument, now!" Yugao bit her lip, as the forceful order, and the push, was enough to have her start running. Why was she running? She should have stayed, Hayate was dead, her daughter was somewhere, away from her, kidnapped from her, and she…she was alone now. As tears began to fall, she swiped them out, noticing with her keen eyes a flash of blond, and one of those strange clad men, dashing from rooftop to rooftop, towards the Hokage's tower. He was there. The bastard.

She was going to make him pay, who cared for orders!

*Naraka path and Human Path*

The Animal path kept, instead, going, conjuring the Naraka path and the Human path, and sending them straight after the Root operatives, in hope of gathering intelligence on Danzo, and the Kyuubi's container, location. They moved towards the old Root headquarters, those *official* ones that had been reinstated, and that probably held only the weakest Root members. Still, if they extracted enough information, they would have been able to find out where the Root headquarters were, where Danzo was, and where the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki was from his mind. It was with narrowed gaze from the Human path, that the Naraka path, sharing his vision together with him, stopped running and began, instead, looking around. There was no hint of nervousness in his sight, but it was true that something was amiss, from the very entrance of the barracks, dead bodies, seemingly killed with ferocious and wide slashes, stood around. The problem was that the slashes seemed to have been coming from their behind, which meant that someone, within, had killed them, catching them by surprise…The Naraka path was the first to move in, followed closely by the Human path, who kept his gaze towards the back. As the corridors slowly turned to reveal a brief Genjutsu of confusion, something that had already gone off since a while, they saw a door that was meant to be hidden by the Jutsu in question, and, mostly, they saw how it looked having been shredded through by strange claw-like motions.

As a splatter of blood fell on the Naraka's shoulder, the man turned his gaze upward, to see, with surprise, corpses literally charred on the ceiling, their melted fat and muscles tying them in sickening blobs, defying gravity itself. None were alive, as they moved forward, slowly opening the door that led to a staircase, descending towards the probably more secret archives, or training grounds. The first three steps gave way to deadly traps, that seemingly had been left untouched, yet to be sprung, but that didn't harm the Naraka path, as the Human path swiftly grabbed him by the shoulder, avoiding him a nasty fall into a deep spike-filled pit. They jumped over it, annoyed by such petty tricks, and as they slowly walked downstairs, a thin layer of mist began appearing before their eyes, as they descended, passing by several floors, minimum, of height. The mist seemed chakra enhanced, and for that, both paths tensed up slightly. Still, seeing the floor finally opening up before their eyes, they decided to move in.

The fizzle of explosive tags, set to detonate at the slightest movement, was the last thing both paths heard.

*Deva Path and Minato Namikaze*

While that had yet to happen, the Deva Path stood together with Minato Namikaze, as both had subtly reached the Hokage's tower, and were looking through Danzo's document as the Hokage, trying to find out *where* he had built the facilities of Root.

It was at that moment, that Yugao charged in from the window, brandishing her sword against Minato, only to find herself being pulled closer, and then pulled away, to crash against the wall with sickening crunches of bones shattering.

The woman screamed, as falling on the ground, blood oozing from her mouth, she let out a murderous stare and snarl at the blond haired man in front of her.

"Why are…YOU…Here!" she coughed, between a spasm and another.

"Well…your daughter was given back to Danzo, after all…" Minato said with a too honest grin that reeked of fake, "didn't he tell you!" at that exaggerate shocking gesture, Yugao could but scream curses, as the fourth's kunai embedded itself deeply into the woman's skull, killing her on the spot.

"She should have known better than to piss me off," Minato whispered, "Anyway, Danzo bought a bakery…and I don't think…"

"The Human path found something," the Deva path spoke, "and it's something…strange," he finished.

"Strange how?" Minato replied.

"All Root operatives found till now are dead or deceased," he whispered back.

"What?" Minato couldn't understand: who could act and kill highly trained ninjas, before they could get their hands on them?

"Seems like a beast, maybe a summoned one from the Animal path went stray…in any case, have you found what we're looking for?" at Minato's nod, the Deva path muttered a simple, "Good, then let's move," not giving him the time to reply anything else, as he moved to the window that Yugao had crashed through, and as Minato followed, albeit visibly tensed, they exited the building, dashing off towards the bakery, on the other side of the village, as they moved, they could see the nearly empty city being destroyed by animal summons, even a Giant Panda was in the mix, but civilians weren't there, all too busy at the stadium, where Kushina and Kisame were. Many of the shinobis were there too, actually, the search for Danzo and the Kyuubi, barring strange events, like the fight with that wolf-masked anbu, or the interference of the cat-masked one, it all seemed too easy, even. Albeit the true location of Danzo still eluded them, it was only a matter of time. One had to wonder *where* the man had gone, however.

*Danzo*

Danzo stood quietly, waiting at the spot barely two hours away from Konoha, in wait. He had barely given a speech of how strong the will of fire was, something that would have probably made Sarutobi, and his long winded talks, turning around in their graves, but still, he had to keep up appearances, until he had taken the first chance, leaving behind everyone else, except his two most trusted Root members, Sai and Yamato, to the meeting. He was there, in wait, while the two were hidden away from presence, among the forest foliage, thanks to the Mokuton ability of Yamato, there was no way they'd be spotted, having made a new tree sprout around them, to seemingly merge with the others. There he stood, Danzo, in wait straight in front of a giant and old oak tree, its root carving deeply within the soil, as its leafs basked in the warming rays of the sun. There, he waited for Toruna of the snakes, the mysterious man that had bested the Akatsuki, found Saki, and had then captured and subdued her…but most importantly, was willing to return her, albeit at a prize. The amount of money he had asked hadn't been measly, but to keep face, and avoid a horrendous and horrible excuse to return it, since he would have rather said they had already found her, but kept her hidden to avoid giving her back, then admit publicly that he had freed the Fourth Hokage and his wife to personally pursue and kill Naruto, so that his knowledge, his too dangerous knowledge of Root, of the hidden side of Konoha, wouldn't surface. Now, he paid the price for his foolishness. He shouldn't have underestimated the Iron Land's ability in upbringing worthy men, bred for war, for excellence, but he was thankful that every man had its weakness, its sins, its dark shadows and its frailties, he knew them all, and thankfully, Toruna's was easy…it was greed.

Furthermore, Danzo was sure Toruna, albeit being hailed as the best tracker, wouldn't last against Yamato, a Root captain, and Sai's conjoint ambush. First, however, he'd need the real location of Saki. The use of *that* eye for the information wouldn't be a problem, as long as it proved truthful.

The man appeared, actually, in a flicker of leaves, looking straight into the only eye of Danzo. His eyes were a dark blue gaze, his hair was a dirt blond color and red-stained, and his clothes were white and black, as the mantle with the Kanji for snake stood on his back.

"Toruna of the snakes?" Danzo queried, he obviously knew the man's general description, and it matched. He slightly tensed, as he could see the man looking behind him with a puzzled look, before turning his sight once more of the Godaime Hokage.

"You are Shimura Danzo, I suppose?" the man replied, his tone haughty and filled with pride, something that didn't seem to bode well with the Hokage, who narrowed his eye in a small frown, before querying.

"Answer me truthfully about the location of the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki," as the words were spoken with commanding tone, his right eye activated the Kotoamatsukami: he would be able to use it again the next day, so there was no problem.

"She's in Kumogakure's area of control, near the waterfall of truth," the man replied, before tensing greatly. Something that Danzo thought impossible, as the technique was seemingly untraceable, except by the users of the Byakugan who would, at most, see the chakra fluctuate…only Shisui had the Mangekyo Sharingan required for it, so it should have been extremely difficult for someone to tense without a real reason…

"Kotoamatsukami…" Toruna whispered, before chuckling, "Damn, the fox surprises me every single time," he added with a snort, "Change of plans then, can't have you use it again tomorrow," he added, making Danzo visibly pale…just how could the man.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu: World of snakes!" as Toruna clapped both his hands together before touching the ground, snakes of various sizes and types sprouted, a veritable army and wriggling mass of them dashed forward like a wave, hell set on taking a bite out of Danzo's skin.

"Fūton: Shinkū Taigyoku!" as Danzo inhaled and exhaled, an enormous wave of condensed wind laid in front of him, creating a vacuum in its center, sucking away the snakes and making the wave form a hole in the middle of it, but the objective of Toruna was completed. The snakes slithered around, seemingly at random, but in truth, the first part was completed.

"Yamato! Give me cover to disengage the locks!" as Danzo yelled that, the tree behind him exploded, sending forward ink lions, and *Tree*, the sight of which made Toruna's eyes narrow, as slowly, a seething anger took control of his mind. He was going to enjoy this…oh that he was.

"Mokuton: Jukai Heki!" as Yamato brought his hands on the ground, between Toruna and Danzo, a wall of trees sprouted from the ground, raising towards the sky and blocking view from Danzo, while Sai instead swiftly drew on his scroll.

"Chōjū Giga!" as ink lions emerged from it, dashing forward to bite upon the man, Toruna grinned, as he disappeared from existence, in a puff of smoke.

The next moment, a Toruna wielding a rasengan hit Sai on the chest, having emerged from a small snake who was lazily twirling on the ground, unnoticed. The force of the spin, of the push, the strength of the twirling chakra sphere twisted the boy's guts, who, in a sort of brief moment of understanding, as his eyes met those of the man in front of him, suddenly felt at peace. He was going to die there…well, his brother had waited long enough for him. As Sai was flung out of the battleground, to crash against a couple of trees, Yamato brought his hands forward, exclaiming.

"Mokuton: Mokusatsu Shibari no Jutsu!" just as branches literally grew out of his arms, to reach and entangle Toruna, the man in question disappeared again, to reappear, moments later, with a Chidori in hand.

"H…How can you…" Yamato knew of the Raikiri of Kakashi, but in order to create that, it required time, time that wasn't possible to obtain from a single Shunshin…but then how…just…how was the lightning sphere that cackled like a thousand birds possibly be tearing up his insides? How could the man do that? How could the man know of such a thing?

"In my world, I never fight alone," Toruna whispered in a hushed tone, as suddenly, realization dawned on Yamato, in his last breath…

"Mon…"

"Monster? From Tree, I would have expected at least to remember my name," Naruto whispered back to his former Root mentor, as he let his covered in blood hand drop out of his ribcages. The man hadn't even tried a clone…did he actually want to die? Why at his hands? What was it that had made him suicidal? Maybe it was guilt?

Danzo had however finished unlocking his strapped arm, and as the sharingan blared in full view, Toruna chuckled…the poor blinded fool, didn't he realize, that in his world, it was him who made the rules? He was gambling, right then, and in gambles…he usually came out alive. As the wooden walls came crashing down, from a set of powerful cutting wind blades, Toruna sidestepped them, setting his gaze clearly on the origin of said jutsu: The Yami of shinobis.

"Well then, Toruna of the snakes, you understand I can't let you live," Danzo muttered, as the man bit his thumb, muttering, with a slightly annoyed voice, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Baku!"

As a giant tapir with striped legs and a giant trunk emerged from the smoke, Toruna parried Danzo's punch from his right arm, filled with sharingans, with his own right forearm, that had red armguards on it, the symbol for *One* strapped onto them.

"Juinjutsu," he hushed out in a murmur, as from Toruna's armguards ink seals spread forward like crawling snakes, as where they went, it forced the body to go numb. Toruna grunted his anger, as he jumped backwards, while Danzo's summon began a sucking motion, to pull him towards him, sucking in his trunk also the snakes that were scattered around.

"No parrying," Toruna muttered to himself, as, the moment he entered Baku's trunk, he dispersed into smoke, leaving on the ground the Red armguards with the Kanji for *One*.

"Here comes the second!" a voice yelled out loud, as an electrically charged hand dashed straight for Danzo's back, only, instead of connecting, it moved through Danzo's body, who, sidestepping, whispered.

"Fūton: Shinkūha!" the second one dispersed too, the hit of the slashing blades on his body more than enough to dispel him.

"For none is greater than the third!" as a third Toruna actually emerged from the back of Danzo's summon, he united his hands into symbols, before yelling out loud.

"Raiton: Electromagnetic murder!" as an enormous wave of lightning chakra poured through the summon, electrocuting him and forcing him to dissolve, it spread on the ground, cracking it repeatedly, as it neared Danzo, who seemed to pass through the attack unscathed, once more.

"Futon: Shinkugyoku!" as air bullets launched themselves at the man, once more, did the dispersion happen, this made Danzo narrow his eyes, many ninjas, at the third Kage Bunshin, and after battling both Yamato and Sai would be nearly exhausted...yet there he was…probably he was still…

"Have you realized it by now?" The voice called to him from behind him, as more snakes slithered out from the man's trousers, to move around, encircling the area as slowly, Danzo realized he was surrounded.

"Yes, seems you understood it," another Toruna appeared, this one wearing a black scarf around his neck, "as sad as it is," another one, this one had a Ninjato in both of his hands, "you may as well fight till you drop," another one, again, how many were there?

"Still it's funny, you haven't remembered me…well…maybe *this* will help," the last one, at least, so much Danzo hoped, appeared, with a Katana, unsheathed, in his firm grip, a Katana Danzo opened his eyes wide in seeing…no, it couldn't be…

"Courtesy of Kuro, who kept it, you remember Kuro, do you?" A dark black shadow loomed over Danzo, slightly obscuring the sun.

"All that is given so shall be returned," the voice hissed, "Well…time to finish the show, Yami of the Shinobis," as Kuro from high above, began charging wind chakra, the clouds began condensing.

"You should be dead!" Danzo finally screeched, as he realized that his only hope was running, he wasn't a fool to expect to win an underhanded fight that seemed to have been meticulously prepared too.

"Should I? Well…don't you know the saying? Wait, let me sing you a song," one of the Toruna's said, "It's really nice, especially the last bit…"

"_His spawn is foul but soon to be dead,_" one of the Toruna hymned, as he slowly let the chains sprout from his back, to intertwine with those of the other two, who, in turn, intertwined with the remaining one, forming a sort of square that had at its center…Danzo.

The Yami of Shinobi charged through, trying to carve its path through one of the sides, but to his surprise, Izanagi was deflected, it was like the chakra chains were blocking him from converting his illusion into reality. Unknown to him, the chains sapped away at chakra, thus unbalancing the chakra control, the extremely needed chakra control, to reshape the illusion to reality: the fact the song seemed to be aimed to unnerve him was a plus.

"_Let us hit him again, until the ground is red,_" another one said, as the chains began pulsing with twirling air chakra that seemed to roll off the dome they were in, Kuro himself touching the dome with the tip of his tail, letting it become the discharge point of his chakra. Danzo turned to charge at one of the Toruna's in the line, only to find his path blocked by a white scaled snake that roared a searing flame at him, forcing him to dodge it, and stay tensed.

"I am Yami, the scornful scorcher of sorrows, the scaly flamethrower, and the fiery snake of Ryuchi cave!" as Danzo gritted his teeth, turning to face another one of the Torunas within, he roared, actually, in his anger.

"Mokuton!" as thick snarled branches dashed off like spears to aim at their objectives, he dashed off towards another one, letting loose his control over the mokuton, as it was severely depleting his own chakra.

The wood branches impacted against a hard rocky surface, as a snake, a big snake with minerals scattered on all of her scales raised her form from the ground itself, it hissed, slowly, as the branches broke off against her form. Danzo, on the other hand, found himself threatened by a fierce gale that stopped him on his track, as a black snake sprouted in front of the third Toruna.

"_And if he survives then another night,_" the fire chakra was being seen in the chain's barrier-like interlope, as it was uniting together with the wind chakra, assuming a strangely orange hue, courtesy of Yoru, who stood outside the barrier, doing the same thing as his father. Danzo had no choice, it smelled of trap to him a mile's away, but it was the only choice, as he dashed towards the last one, the only one without a snake guarding him, he could see it, on the man, on the monster, on the demon that he, himself, had created, those final words.

"_We'll come back and we'll set him alight._" And with those words, the snakes dispersed, as Danzo, too close in the dash to stop, saw the dome collapse straight on him, as he found himself actually enchained in a sort of sarcophagus of chakra chains that brightly shone orange and swirling colors of red and white, before, at the end of the four chains belonging to the four Torunas, the name of the Jutsu was whispered silently, as the last step.

"Uzumaki style: Inferno Iron Maiden!" as electricity sparked along the chains, the extremely chakra consuming jutsu set off a veritable pyre for the Yami of shinobi, who, failing his Izanagi, in his last thoughts, went all out.

"Ura Shishō Fūinjutsu!" as the scream tore through the chains, suddenly black ink lines sprouted from within, breaking through the chains.

_The monster I created…SHOULD DIE WITH ME!_

As the last thoughts of Danzo crept through his mind, Naruto watched the scene from his position of safety. Did Danzo really think he'd fight the battle in person? He nodded to his four clones, four new clones, which dashed to grab what they could before the seal enclosed itself, leaving behind only the body of Danzo, for which Naruto slowly moved down himself.

He reached it, slowly, staring deeply at the man's arm that, albeit charred, was already showing signs of regenerating, as roots attached themselves to the soil.

"Researchers are going to be happy about this, no doubt," he muttered as he suddenly felt the jolt of pain in his stomach, gritting his teeth. Not good, not good at all.

"Hate it when they disperse," he growled, slowly, before taking out from his inner pocket a small brown pellet, " this makes three in a day, I'm at my limit…hell…" he chuckled, as he ate it slowly, "My chakra is like a sun…huh? Even suns run dry," as he gulped it down, he could feel it, his overused chakra coils pumping out more chakra, making him sweat even more than normal, as whatever nutrient could be sucked out of his stomach was used swiftly.

"I kind of wonder… Why do I feel so empty?" he whispered to no-one in particular, in the field, charred by the destruction, as the corpse of Danzo suddenly began sprouting flowers, the cells of Hashirama Senju taking over, as slowly, the Yami of Darkness was no more, in his place just a sort of wooden statue, flowers and branches sprouting from it. A clone moved closer, slightly touching the man and reverse summoning himself and the dead leader of Root to Ryuchi Cave.

"Death is just that…Death," Kuro whispered, slowly letting his wings land him down, "there is nothing else in death, but that…silence, nothing, void if you wish…but right now, people are approaching, should we leave?" as Kuro queried that, the man seemingly brought his gaze downwards, mulling over the snake's words.

"Hey boss! No need being down now!" Yoru hissed, trying to comfort Naruto, who was lost in his thoughts.

"Yeah, you're right Yoru…you all go, I know who the signatures belong to, I'll be fine," as he finished saying those words, the Toad Sage suddenly appeared with a worried expression in the area, narrowing his gaze as both Kuro and Yoru dispersed, together with the snakes all around them, and for once, Naruto sighed in relief. The corpse of Yamato wasn't on the ground either, and neither was that of Sai.

"Seems you battled in here," Jiraiya hinted, looking around, as he slowly moved towards the man, "what's going on? And where is your group?"

"Disbanded," as he spoke, Jiraiya's eyes opened in shock, how could he disband the group…unless he had already found the Kyuubi? But then…it was just…why being here of all places? A bad thought crept into the toad sage head, a really bad one, "after all," Naruto continued, "Danzo held her hostage, so I *had* to free her…" he finished speaking.

"Wait…you faced off with Danzo?" Jiraiya's eyes nearly popped out of his eyes socket, "Here?" as Naruto nodded, the Toad Sage actually stared in disbelief at the man in front of him, before finally taking a deep breath.

"So…I take it he was behind your death…"

"The previous Jinchuuriki host died because of his biddings, it seems," Toruna of the snakes shrugged, "point being he resisted freeing Saki-chan, the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki, and I just *had* to free her, you know, good guy, white armor, shining sword…I even have the cool mantle!" as he finished speaking, Jiraiya's eyes narrowed for a brief second on the man, before shrugging too.

"So, you brought the fight out of Konoha?"

"That I did…though you might want to dash towards the village never the less," Toruna replied, "as I am in no obligation to help…you on the other hand should…" as he finished, he pointed his finger straight towards the direction of the village, "off you go, or only cinders will wait for you, Akatsuki is searching for the Kyuubi after all…" Jiraiya stood livid, biting his tongue from saying anything else, as he turned to dash towards Konoha, he'd hit the brat later on, he could excuse him out of having killed Danzo, and probably be unable to fight any longer…but if he'd find out the boy had used Konoha, and its people, as baits…he'd probably plant a triple rasengan in his guts to be sure.

After a while, C-san and Anko, the first with Sasuke on his shoulder, appeared in the clearing, a fact that made Naruto narrow his eyes, while on the purple haired kunoichi's shoulder stood, instead, Tayuya.

"Toruna-san?" C queried, trying his best to keep up a façade, one that, however, Anko didn't keep.

"Otouto!" She snapped at the man, dropping Tayuya on the ground like a bag of potatoes, "What're you doing here? Wanted some Anko-chan's goodness before searching for the Kyuubi?" as she queried that with a smirk and a wink, Naruto looked silently at C, then at the boy he was carrying. His eyes said it all, as tension slowly descended once more on the area.

"He's to be brought to Konoha to be…" C spoke, but was interrupted by the raised hand of Toruna, who spoke quietly, and harshly.

"As he has assaulted an iron land member, he is to be punished by the Iron land's closest individual, even the offended himself, if another isn't present, I thank you for having brought him to me…so drop him, and let's close another circle," with those words, Naruto's right hand produced the Kusanagi blade, a thing that made Anko jolt her eyes open in surprise…the blade was…he was…did he…could it?

"Na…"

"I killed Orochimaru," at those words, Tayuya's eyes bulged in shock, "I am the Snake Sage of Ryuchi cave, and Toruna of the snakes, so…" raising the sword, he pointed it, straightly, to aim at Sasuke, "Drop him, C-san," at those words, C tensed slightly, before actually obeying. He didn't care for the Uchiha kid and, wherever Toruna was saying something true or not, it didn't matter to him.

"Naruto…please…this won't bring him back," Anko whispered, "There's no need to dirty your hands with him, Danzo will probably execute him never the less," as she tried to reason with him, she in truth would have wanted to kill the boy herself, but she didn't want for Naruto to do it. Sure, his hands were already drenched in blood, but she still wanted to cling to the image of the boy who called her Oneechan.

"Danzo cannot, he's dead," and with those words, Naruto's sword pointed straight at Sasuke's fallen form, the crawling Uchiha seeing nothing but darkness, hearing nothing but the following words from the man in front of him, *Naruto*…so he was alive, and he was going to kill him! Why him! He still had to kill Itachi! He still had to kill his brother! "Kusanagi no Tsurugi: Kū no Tachi" the sword departed from Naruto's hand with a pale blue hue, and flew straight ahead, ready to carve deep within the last Uchiha's skull, but it was blocked by another sword, that flashed in a straight downwards motion, deflecting the blade and bringing it to crash on the ground, inches away from Sasuke's face.

C tensed, as Anko did too.

There, deflecting the blow, stood no-one else but Itachi Uchiha himself.

"So…here I was thinking you'd enjoy me killing him…still loving your brother much, Itachi?" as Naruto spoke, Sasuke's words, words he wouldn't be able to speak never the less, gurgled in his mouth. It couldn't be: Itachi had saved him? Itachi had to die…why did he save him? He killed the entire family!

"He is mine to kill, Toruna of the snakes," Itachi whispered back, as C's hands went to his senbons, Anko sprouted snakes from her forearms, ready to bite at the man, only for him to dissolve into a Genjutsu of crows.

Itachi, from his position behind Toruna, his kunai ready, mused, seeing that C and Anko had both fallen prey to his strong Genjutsu, and were on the ground, unable to move.

"Fallen in a Genjutsu so easily…" and with those words, he received a sharp kick in the stomach, throwing him backwards as Toruna himself, eyes closed, dashed at him, Kusanagi flying back into his own hands.

"Impossible!" as Itachi pointed threw shurikens with his left hand at the man, his right hand, in the symbol of Tiger, he roared, "Katon: Hōsenka Tsumabeni!" as the shurikens began burning brightly, dashing with inhuman speed at Toruna, the man rolled to the side, using in a moment the snakes on his back to launch himself upwards, letting the point of his sword aim at Itachi, before increasing its length.

The sword's point passed through Itachi's body without a hitch, as in truth crows dispersed from his form.

"As expected from a prodigy…can't seem to find your true self," Toruna mused, as his left hand produced a Ninjato, to block an incoming slash of a kunai.

"You trained to battle me?" Itachi queried, his eyes narrowing as he dashed backwards, avoiding the snakes that had seemingly sprouted from his shoulder, to bite at him.

"I trained to battle Sharingan wielders…I trained to battle the Fourth, I trained to battle my enemies, but the real reason I train…is because I want to protect my friends," with those words, the Kusanagi flew against Itachi, while the man in question ducked his head, avoiding the blade, the Ninjato slashed in a swipe in front of the Uchiha eldest, who swiftly moved his head backwards, only to find chains of chakra aiming at his side, forcing him to use a technique he didn't want to use.

"Susanoo!" as the skeleton of pure concentrated chakra wrapped around Itachi, the chains bounced away harmlessly, as Toruna, for once, opened his eyes.

"Impressive," he whispered, before closing them again, a thing that Itachi didn't, at all, ignore.

"This is the ultimate defense form of the Uchiha, it has no weakness! You are a risk for Akatsuki, Toruna of the snakes! For that I have to kill you!" as Itachi's Susanoo flailed its arms, creating three giant tomoes bound by chakra, the Akatsuki member yelled, "Yasaka no Magatama!" and, as his eyes slowly blurred a bit more, the giant spinning chakram-like attack spun forward, tearing a path through everything, to reach Toruna.

Once more, the man opened his eyes, avoiding the attack, and in that brief instant, Itachi was swiftly in front of him, his sharingan blazing, albeit his eyes were bleeding.

"Tsukuyomi!" and the next moment, Naruto stood in a sort of barren landscape, the colors drained, only black, red, and white being predominant. Itachi, a hundred, or even a thousand of Itachi were there, Katanas in hand, and staring at him, eyes narrowed.

"You should be on a cross," one of them pointed out, as Toruna, simply, nodded.

"I should, but do you understand," the last word was stressed, "the true purpose of Tsukuyomi?" as he questioned that, Itachi's face grew puzzled.

"What is it?" he asked, honestly curious as why his most powerful Genjutsu seemed to be known, and actually understood, by the man in front of him.

"To train in desperate moments. Seventy-two hours of training in the art of Genjutsu can save a person's life on the battlefield, all in brief seconds. It then became a torture instrument, or worst…but its general application…was training among family members by going all out, without risking to kill each other," Toruna replied, "that's why family members can nullify, or break free from it, easily," as he finished speaking, his eyes darted a red hue, with a slit in the middle, those nine lines, four per side, and one in the lower part, staring at him.

"What are those eyes? You didn't possess them before…your family doesn't possess a Doujutsu…who gave them to you?" at the questions, Toruna smiled.

"A ninja lives in deceit most of his life, Itachi…let's just say that, had Uchiha Madara talked with the Kyuubi, instead of battling him into submission, then this eye form would have been the Sharingan's real one," as he spoke, Itachi, for once, showed a shocked expression.

"What is their power? You fell for the illusions, and…"

"Do you know why I'm answering you, Itachi?" as the man shook his head, in truth, he had expected some sort of resistance, from the man, "It's because you haven't used Amaterasu yet. Now ask me how I understand," Once more, the word was stressed, "your sharingan's powers, and you will understand," stressed once more, "what my eyes power truly is," as he stood silent, Itachi's mind blazed with thoughts, possibilities, and then, finally, with understanding…the key word.

"You understand the usage of anything you see, you do not copy them…you cannot use them…but you can understand them, and, at a later use…"

"Learn how to do them. Your Tsukuyomi? Your Susanoo? Your Genjutsus? Your Crow Bunshins? Your Yasaka no Magatama? The Izanagi from Danzo? The Kotoamatsukami from his right eye? They are now known by me…and with time, and training, they'll be mine too, my growth, Itachi…is exponential…I'm a monster after all," Naruto's mouth turned into a small grin, "A monster who will rise to revolution the world, be it by saving it or destroying it," as he finished speaking, Itachi narrowed his gaze.

"Danzo? Where is he? Did you battle him and survive?" Toruna chuckled, before shaking his head.

"I did better, I killed the Yami of Shinobis myself…don't act surprised…he underestimated by true powers, thinking I was just another man blinded by greed, how could he expect his own monster to come back to tear his head off?" as Itachi slowly nodded, the Uchiha muttered once more.

"Are you really going to kill Sasuke?"

"No," Toruna's words shocked even more Itachi, then why did he… "I sensed you from a mile away, Itachi-san…you, like everyone else, underestimated me, I am in Sage mode, whatever it is, vibrations, air movements, chakra signals, I can sense them. I hone my skills every day that passes, every moment, every split second. Right now, clones are training in the very same techniques I stole from Danzo, and eventually, a work of training of years and decades will be but months or maybe a year," Toruna's voice was but a murmur, now, "Exponential growth, Itachi-san…and I needed you to see your techniques…so how about we strike a deal?" at those words, the eldest Uchiha stared at the man in front of him, and then muttered back.

"What is it?"

The words that Naruto spoke on made Itachi realize one thing…he liked the monster better than the man.

*Outside*

It had been but a split second, and then, Itachi was gone together with Sasuke, Toruna fell on his knees, panting, as Anko and C finally regained their motor senses, and slowly stood up, just as the man fell face first on the ground, exhausted, mentally and physically. Anko was the first to reach the man, while C had already a healing jutsu ready, but stopped, seconds before starting it.

"What's your problem now! Get on to it!" Anko exclaimed, as her left hand was on the sweating forehead of Naruto.

"I can't," C replied, "He's under heavy stress from soldier pills…If I so much as touch him with healing chakra…it would send his chakra system on shutdown," that was the main reason soldier pills were dangerous. Since healing chakras worked on the same basis, by stimulating chakra production and then directing it to the sore spots, or wounds, so too did the soldier pills work on stimulating the chakra system…an overstimulation was fatal, however, and for that…"no choice but to wait," the medic-nin whispered.

"He'll make it, right?" Anko queried, worried.

"He survived worst, he'll be fine," C replied with a sigh, as he turned his gaze to where their last prisoner was…only to obviously find her gone.

"Jiraiya-san is going to be pretty pissed," as he finished muttering that, Toruna's eyes widened for a brief second, showing red blood shot eyes with a slit in the middle, as nine black lines stood, slightly moving, bending, twisting, as they slowly started to assume a sort of concentric pattern around the central slit.

Anko tried to hold him down, worried, but the man simply jumped upwards, foam coming out of his mouth, as C's surprised face lasted for a brief moment, before assuming a stern gaze.

"What's going on now!" Anko yelled at the medic-nin, who, for once, had no answer.

"THAT IDIOT!" was all that Toruna roared to the sky, before collapsing once more, on the ground, breathing raggedly as he clutched his stomach, "C! Anko! Get to Konoha…she…she's come! That idiot…that stupid idiot…" as he muttered that gritting his teeth, he stared at the two still ninjas, and yelled once more, "haven't you heard me? MOVE! She's in danger!"

"Who's she?" Anko yelled back nervously.

"The Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki! Just go, I'll be in a safe place, move it!" as he whispered that, he brought his covered in dry blood palm forward, the blood was probably that of Yamato, maybe, and as he dropped it on the ground, he send the small pulse of chakra to base, and base answered back by reverse summoning him to Ryuchi cave, where he lay on the cold rock of the snakes summon place, until Hakuja's eyes stared at him for a brief second.

"You'd better have an explanation…a really good one," Naruto whispered.

"Acting all fatherly, huh?" Hakuja replied with a hiss, "She's not even your real daughter," he added.

"She's my niece then," Naruto muttered back, "and I'm also slapping Kuro, when I see him. He made her sign your contract, didn't he?"

"Actually…she whined, and whined, and whined, and kept on whining," Hakuja said, with a chuckled tone, "until in the end I was forced to admit that *not* eating children was really a tough thing to do, especially the whiny ones. So I made her sign the contract to calm her down. She caught the ball and off she went. Your fault for not having merged the two already, you should have expected that," the white snake hissed, "leaving the old one inside of you and the new one here to be able to reverse summon was genius, alright, but now what are you going to do?"

"Kuro's gone with her?" Naruto wheezed out.

"That he did. By the way, that girl has calmed down in the prison area, and the boy, Sai, is still alive. Tough guy, but he's sedated heavily…more like poisoned heavily," Hakuja replied, correcting himself, "anyway, you stay there and rest, mad man that you are, I'll let you see how the fight goes," and with those words, a puff of smoke appeared in front of Naruto's face, as the scenery within transformed to the fighting area of Konoha…

*Kushina and Kisame*

The animals defeated, the duo was now standing, actually, in a slight pinch. They had to keep the population from moving back to the city, and to do that, Kushina herself had placed seals around the stadium, creating a barrier that blocked them in. As she stood on one side of the barrier, next to Kisame, the faces on the other side were in shock, especially Tsunade's.

"Brat! Pull down this barrier this instant and let me smash your face!" as the slug princess yelled that, the red-haired woman had a tick mark appear on her face.

"Shut up you old hag! This is for your own good! Stay here safe while we beat Danzo 'ttebayo!" as she yelled that back, Tsunade's eyes narrowed.

"And why would you beat the Godaime Hokage?"

"He killed my son!" as she yelled that out loud, Kakashi's eyes narrowed, while he kind of hoped Gai, running around the stadium, would find a weak point in the barrier.

"You killed the boy, Kushina! You and Minato extracted the Kyuubi from him!" Tsunade yelled back, "And you even stole Uzuki-san's daughter, killing a nurse in the progress!"

Kushina stared at the blond pig-tailed woman for a moment, before bringing a hand to her temple, trying to reason something out, but the pain…it just felt so real.

"Don't listen to her, Kushina-san," Kisame snorted, "she's in Konoha because of Danzo's orders, she's just messing with us," as he finished speaking, Kakashi's voice interrupted him.

"Kisame of the Hidden Mist swordsmen, was it that man's actions…again?" as threat loomed from every single word of the silver-haired Jounin, Kisame said nothing, instead resorting to a grin.

"Not saying a word," he replied, sticking his tongue and middle finger out in full view.

"I thought you would understand, Tsunade-san…we are related after all…" Kushina whispered, "but if you prefer to stay on the side of the man who torture me and Minato's life and family, who brought Naruto up as an emotionless weapon devoted only to warfare, and that was the cause of Katsumi's passage to Orochimaru, then I have no more words for you! You all stay here 'ttebayo! If you come out, I'll handle you myself!"

"You're spouting madness! Kushina! None of that happened! It was YOU who…" as Tsunade tried to reason, Lee suddenly yelled.

"The belt is running!" at that information, that really strange information, Kakashi actually turned around to see Lee's belt, revealing itself as a snake, slithering towards the front of the barrier, before a snake hissed on the other side of it, and, with a wicked grin, both touched the barrier at the same time, creating a hole in it large enough…for someone to break through, at a flying speed, as a white snake on the outer side of the barrier flew, with a sort of purple and green fuzz on its back.

"I'm the white doom from above, the stalker of the skies: I'm Shiro-chan, the flying snake!" and on its back, in a pose reminiscing that of Jiraiya, a woman clad in a green scaled armor, with the kanji for *Tail* on the front, and a forehead protector with *Snake* on it yelled out loud.

"I'm Saki-chan, the violet blur of snakes! From the Waterfall of truth, I come to save the day, YOH!" as she finished saying that, a thick fire stream emerged from her mouth, couple with Shiro's wind release, that generated a tornado of fire and wind, that clashed downwards, towards the two Akatsuki members.

"Shisa Combine: Fiery Tornado of the skies!" as the fire that rained down forced the two to jump backwards, Kushina extracted the chains from her back, dashing them upwards, as Kisame on the other hand grabbed Samehada and roared:

"Suiton: Bakusui Shōha!" as the water wave of titanic proportions clashed against the fire and wind enhanced tornado, Kushina's chains broke through, expecting to aim and surround their attacker, only to find the duo had already flew out of the way, as the woman on the back of the flying snake roared:

"Katon: Endan!" as the woman yelled that, releasing a giant fireball that slowly moved downwards, Kisame grinned.

"Too slow…Ack!" Shiro in the meantime had actually started blowing out smaller, and faster, wind spheres, that passing through the fireball not only made it bigger, but sprouted from the other side extremely fast fire bullets, using the fireball itself as a shield and a mean of attack.

"Who is the slow one, you…you meanie!" as the woman yelled that, Kushina took the moment to dash a chain forward, taking advantage of the side movement of the flying snake. Only to find the chain stopped by a firm grip, belonging to a blond-pigtailed woman, who had passed through the hole in the barrier.

"Who did you call an old hag!" as Tsunade charged in, fist blazing and ready to punch a new face into the stupid red-haired woman, Kisame's samehada blocked the fist, albeit the bandages came loose by the strength of the impact, that sent the missing-nin a couple of steps back from the recoil.

As blood gushed out from Tsunade's knuckles, only to be healed in a split second, the legendary medic-nin muttered.

"So it absorbs chakra, huh!" Kakashi had exited next, his sharingan blazing into full view. He'd question the presence of a flying woman later, as she seemed on their side.

"We'll take the fight from here!" Just as he yelled that, the woman yelled back.

"Have you seen uncle! He was pretty hurt! I thought he was here…to the village Shiro-chan!" as Saki exclaimed that, not seeing her uncle among the crowd, she flew off, worried. She knew her uncle was strong, and safe, but still…why did she have a bad gut feeling?

"Kushina, they're lying to you!" Tsunade yelled at her remaining relative, well, not considering Katsumi.

"No! Minato would never lie to me!" Kushina replied, her chains sprouting hooked barbs of chakra, "Stand back or I will have to kill you! We're here only for Danzo!"

"If as you say, Danzo is the only culprit, why didn't you bring this matter to Mifune of the Iron lands?" Kakashi replied, "He could have send an investigation team, and they would have granted you safety, and if proven innocent…you could have been brought back to Konoha without a hitch."

Kushina's eyes narrowed, for a moment, trying to come for a reasonable reason why Minato hadn't brought it up. There was a reason, right?

"No! He certainly had a reason to do so! Minato would never lie to me!" as Kushina yelled that back, Kisame's eyes narrowed.

"Anyway we have to leave now, Uzumaki-san!" the half-shark yelled, "There are too many Jounins to test our luck! Suiton: Amesuikōha!" as he stomped his foot on a puddle of water nearby, it shot forward bursts of small water sharks, that charged forward while Kushina created a wall of the barbed chains, to prevent back attacks from Tsunade who tried running against them, not caring about the attack, since she could heal herself with her Creation Rebirth technique.

It was at that moment, as Kisame enlarged himself before unleashing a gigantic wave of water, once more, to hide their escape that Kakashi turned to Maito Gai, the green beast of Konoha, who had recently arrived on the scene, emerging from the hole in the barrier after having been shot backwards by the water pressure.

"Gai, you're the fastest one of us all, reach Konoha, we'll be there as soon as we put the civilians to safety!" as Gai nodded to his rival, the green beast dashed off, just as Lee tried to follow him, he was stopped by Asuma and Kurenai.

"You all! All the Shinobis who aren't Jounin class at least, remain close to the civilians, and protect them!" and with that, Shikamaru actually moved together with the others…after all he was a Jounin, and there *was* something troublesome with that woman, the *snake* and *tail* symbol, and the *uncle* she was referring to.

_Can't be him…I suppose._

*Deva path and Minato Namikaze*

The two stood side by side, looking at the destroyed mess of the actual Root headquarters. Blood, guts, broken swords were everywhere. The problem was they all belonged to the Root members, no sign of the assaulters, no body to be seen.

"They had to have acted fast, during our assault," the Deva path whispered, "they knew we were going to attack today, so they planned to shift the blame on us," as he said that, his gaze turned to Minato, who narrowed his eyes.

"You aren't thinking I spied for them, right? You know I don't care about Konoha, as of now," he whispered back, "and I hate Danzo's guts never the less," he added.

"Then who? Itachi killed his clan, you escaped because Danzo let you escape," Deva muttered, "Kushina is out of the question…so who?"

"Certainly not me! And if you want me to prove it, then take out your Naraka path and let's get this over with…it's disgusting, but I'll take it," Minato replied, a frown on his face.

"I'll do just…he's gone," Deva path whispered, "He's out of control, as is the Human path. Somebody killed them," he slowly added, "with explosions."

"We should have brought Deidara with us," Minato muttered back.

"No, he, Hidan and Kakuzu were needed elsewhere…" at those words, he hoped the three wouldn't fail in capturing the Hachibi and the Nibi.

"Anyway, seems we'll have to look through their archives," as Minato pointed that out, Deva's eyes narrowed.

"We'll have to be quick about it: My animal path has just been destroyed by Jiraiya," at those words, Minato's eyes widened in surprise.

"Should I go and take care of stalling him?" Minato replied, to which Deva path shook his head.

"No, I'll go together with Asura and the Preta path," as the Deva turned to leave, he simply added, "Remember…we either return with the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, or you won't see your daughter until it's captured," and with that, he Shunshin'd away. Leaving the ex-Hokage to grit his teeth, and create Kage Bunshins to look around the underground barracks, located under the bakery that sold *Will of Fire* biscuits, approved by the Godaime Hokage himself.

One of his Kage Bunshins moved to a door, opening it to reveal a trap and a hail of senbons flying against him, which the Bunshin still dodged, before another one found the same stuff. There were traps all along the compound. How could the assaulters manage to kill them all without leaving any trace of their passage, and without having the traps spring? They either had to be really skilled commandos, or they must have had some insider work of sort. Finally, the archives came into view, and with those, the explosive tags set inside detonated, forcing the Fourth Hokage to Hiraishin out of there at full speed.

"Damn Kami!" he roared, as he safely appeared on a nearby rooftop, only to see the Bakery exploded into bits and pieces, rubbles everywhere.

"Uncle! Where are you!" A womanly voice yelled from the skies, high above him, making him raise a puzzled eyebrow at the scene of a purple-haired woman, riding a flying white snake.

He didn't hesitate a second, throwing his three pronged kunai upwards and moving to where it was, to reach the same height as the girl, before launching a volley of those kunais from one of his scrolls, and reappearing on the closest one to her, throwing her a side-kick to send her downwards, while dispersing the white snake with a punch, before reappearing right next to one of his kunais, and dashing towards the woman who, albeit in her fall, had sprouted snakes from her forearms, to reduce the impact, and had thus slowed her descent.

"HEY!" she yelled at the man, who charged forward, a rasengan spinning in his hand, ready to impact against the purple-haired woman. His eyes had seen pretty well, the *Tail* symbol and the *Snake* one, the woman was probably a helper of Toruna, and that the case, she'd prove to be a necessary key. By using her, he might be able to weasel his way into the protection of the Iron Land…by keeping her hostage.

The Rasengan hit full force the stomach of the woman, the speed of the fourth Hokage wasn't something that could be met head on so easily, and because of that, Saki was pushed on the other side of the roof, to crash at the façade of the building on the other side.

"Maybe I overdid it," he muttered, as suddenly, in front of him, a flash of red chakra appeared, as Saki, in three tailed form, her eyes red, flung a chakra claw at him, pushing him backwards as Minato had parried because of the shock of seeing…the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki! Kami really loved him!

He didn't waste time, letting his trademark kunai spin wildly in his right hand, before dashing forward once more, throwing some in her direction, that, however, her chakra cloak deflected as more clawed hands sprouted from the woman's back.

"You're the man uncle hates!" she roared, "You made uncle suffer!" as she screamed that, the roof creaked under the wave of chakra being released, as Minato transferred behind the woman's back, thoughts entering his mind and leaving it, as now wasn't the moment, he found himself being attack from those very same claws, that seemed omnidirectional.

He resorted to transferring far off once more, before generating a rasengan on his right and left hand, holding a Kunai in his mouth. Being the Jinchuuriki meant he could go all out without problems, she'd survive, probably.

_Ōdama Rasengan_ was all the man thought, as two giant spheres of twirling chakra appeared on both of his palms, as he charged forward, just as Saki did the same thing, her eyes red, as she simply dashed, head on, leaving behind a small crater from the strength of her legs. The two rasengans hit head on the woman, who had thought her chakra armor would have sufficed, but as the strength of them halted her, engulfing both fighters into an explosion, Minato dashed away after the hit, avoiding the full out blast that instead took Saki, and flung her on the ground, to roll and repeatedly hit against buildings, until she landed far off the original point of attack.

Meanwhile, on the Hokage's monument, Jiraiya stood facing the Preta, Deva, and Asura path, his eyes and nose mostly frog-like, Ma and Pa on his shoulders, and a sorrowful look on him.

"Nagato…how could you?" he whispered, "How could you bring forth this destruction?"

"How could I not? For peace, I need the Bijuus! If I extract them and turn them into an enormous weapon, the strength unrivalled, then countries won't wage war out of fear!" Nagato replied, "War must be stopped! The cycle of hatred will end only when people will understand that complete destruction is assured for both parts!"

"You were supposed to be the child of the prophecy! Savior of the world!" Jiraiya yelled, a stone sword appearing in his right hand, as he narrowed his gaze.

"Well then, I'll save the world by condemning it!" as the Deva path raised his right hand towards the village, it roared out, "Banshō Ten'in" yelling that, an entire wall of a nearby building soared to reach them, and as the Preta path pulled itself in front of the Deva and the Asura, Jiraiya charged forward.

"Gamayudan!" as thick oil splashed forward, towards the path, the Deva raised his hand once more, hesitating, maybe, for a moment, before replying.

"Shinra Tensei!" the oil stopped in midair, throwing itself backwards, straight at the charging toad sage who, however, sidestepped it, just as the building's side came crashing on them, the Preta path shielding the two others, as Jiraiya seemingly was crushed underneath the pile of rubble.

"Gamadaira — Kageayatsuri no Jutsu!" just as Jiraiya emerged from the building's rubble, having turned flat to avoid being squashed, the Asura path launched forward a hail of missiles, that Pa, on Jiraiya's shoulders, deflected with a strong gust of wind.

"Come on, stick together! I know it's harsh but we need to stop him!" as soon as Ma said that, Jiraiya nodded, gulping down the nervousness in his throat, and getting in a sort of all fours position, his hair extended.

"Senpō: Kebari Senbon!" as soon as he yelled that, he began making signs for another technique, as both Pa and Ma understood, the Deva path instead raised his hand, before muttering once more.

"Shinra Tensei!" just as he did that, however, Jiraiya's cheeks swelled, before releasing a vast amount of oil, followed by Ma's fire and Pa's wind, sending the Goemon straight against him.

The Preta path appeared forward, readying himself to block it, and just as he did that, the stone sword from the Toad's mount came flying through, sticking itself through the corpse's heart, stopping him on his track, as the Kage Bunshin from Jiraiya, created during the building being thrown at him moment, had waited for that instant.

As the Preta path fell down, without wasting another moment, Jiraiya charged, Rasengan in hand, even though it belonged to his former student, and the Asura path, strangely, took the blow while opening up his head, to unleash the explosion that scorched the area around them.

"Hari Jizō!" thankfully for Jiraiya, his sage-enhanced hair was enough to withstand the explosion, albeit the cracks on the ground reached forward, till the head of the fifth Hokage, tearing a good chunk straight in the middle of it.

As the Deva path's eyes narrowed on an explosion not far off, where Minato was seemingly fighting something with red chakra that had tails sprouting from the back. He would have stayed, but Kushina had neared his body, telling him the barrier had been breached and they had to leave.

He gritted his teeth, both the real body and the Deva path, as the Asura path was finished off by Jiraiya, he turned to dash away, heading towards the center of the village.

Meanwhile, Saki was conflicted, the man in front of her had been attacking her without even speaking a word, with precision and coldness, and she was hurt, badly hurt. Even as the fox's chakra dwindled down to a stop, she realized the man wasn't stopping, his right hand ready to bring the kunai straight against her right shoulder, as she was feeling pain all over her body, she barely managed to roll to the side. She was hurting, the pain was everywhere in her body, yet she had to stand, as the man was cruel, and evil, and she had to help her uncle defeat him. No matter what the big-breasted hag, or the strange-tanned man with shades had told her, she was going to help her uncle!

*Waterfall of Truth area*

Yugito sneezed, as B did too, Naruto was going to flail them alive, for having lost sight of the woman.

"My Otouto is going to kill me," Yugito muttered, as she sat down on a tree stump, "the girl was barely three or four years old in her head, and we lost sight of her in the forest," she added.

"I think the bro's going to kill me first," B replied, as he was the one who had been vehemently made to promise to keep an eye out on the girl, and he had given his bro-word on the matter.

As the Hachibi Jinchuuriki looked around, once more, he realized something strange.

"Hey Cat…the forest's quiet," as he spoke that, narrowing his gaze, so too did Yugito, who suddenly jolted up. Avoiding a swipe from a three bladed scythe, that seemed covered in blood.

"Damn Jashin! Here I was thinking I could get a kitty in!" as he sneered, Yugito narrowed her eyes, as B, on the other hand, went for one of his swords.

"Careful B! If he hits you and draws blood he can do a strange ritual to harm you!" as Yugito spoke from experience, the Hachibi Jinchuuriki had already transformed into his cloaked eight tails state.

"With a cloak all is fine!" he rapped, before heading to Lariat the man in question, who took the hit full front with his chest, letting his scythe cut through the chakra cloak like it wasn't even there, wounding the Hachibi on the chest before dashing backwards.

"My Scythe cuts through chakra with ease now! Admire the upgraded version for Jashin!"

**B you idiot! This is what you get for not going all-out from the beginning! **

Yugito would have wanted to intervene, but a sizzle, an explosion, and the chaos of destruction spreading around like raindrops, blasted her against a couple of trees, Matatabi being forced to take over to avoid any more harm. As the tree she was on cracked under the weight and was lit on fire by the flames of the Nibi, Matatabi hissed at the two men, both up in the air, and just as she spat out flaming hairballs covered in fire that seemed more like homing missiles.

"Suiton: Suijinheki!" as water emerged from Kakuzu's mouth, creating a wave wall that fell down, fizzling off the fiery balls of fire, Deidara replied with nice clay doll, that suddenly enlarged itself sevenfold, before falling touching the ground, and igniting.

"We need her alive!" Kakuzu grunted back, as the forest's trees were trashed around violently, "You damn idiot!"

"Art is an explosion! Katsu!" as the blond haired man yelled that, more clay birds dashed underneath them, not even giving time to let the dust settle before exploding again.

"Stop before I kill you!" Kakuzu basically yelled out loud, "What's up with you!"

"Master Sasori died! I'm going to show him, even if he's in the afterlife, how explosions are the true form of art!" as Deidara yelled that with wide grin, laughing maniacally, Kakuzu sighed. Why were all the psychopaths given to him, and not, say, Kisame, or Itachi? Kakuzu narrowed his green eyes, as he looked at the fallen, and charred, body of the Nibi, once the dust settled in. On the other side, Hidan had barely finished his own ritual, something akin to skewering himself just so he could skewer another that suddenly, B changed into the full-out Hachibi form.

"This is…" bad, that was what Kakuzu would have wanted to say, but that instead was revealed under a set of swears from Hidan himself, as the fundamental weakness of his technique was finally revealed.

It worked on blood, so it required the use of blood from the attacked. Now, if the blood no longer belonged to the attacked, but to someone else…like a full-out Bijuu form, then it was useless to even try.

"Jashin-sama…I hate you," were the last words of Hidan, before a full-out Bijudama clashed against him, incinerating him to the point where it didn't even matter if he was immortal, since it left behind not even the dust.

"That's why I told him not to mess around, the idiot," Kakuzu muttered, "He'll probably take years to reform, maybe," he added.

"Let's grab the Nibi and dash away from here, now!" As Deidara brought his own clay bird downwards, B barely turned around, extending his octopus-like appendages of the Hachibi, and tried reaching out for the duo, only to find Kakuzu yell at him.

"Raiton: Gian!" as volleys of electrical thunderbolts darted downwards, to strike at the tentacles, Deidara managed to swiftly gain quota, getting out of reach of the Hachibi, who gritted his teeth.

**Can't use the Bijudama! We need to follow Yugito fast!**

As the Bijuu form moved to jump off into the sea that the giant tortoise was traversing, he began a full out dash to follow the small white bird that seemed to be doings its best to hide behind the clouds.

_The Bro is going to be double pissed, triple pissed, utterly pissed._

**How worst could it actually get?**

*Shizuka*

More than a month to reach Konoha? Had they taken her for a recently appointed Genin Kunoichi? She was the daughter of Mifune, the leader of the Iron Lands, and of the chief of the Nadeshiko Village. There was no way she was as weak as they had thought she was. So, without wasting time in correcting the previous statement, she had dashed off, covering more and more ground as she ensured herself that she'd reach the overly stupid man, the man she had decided to keep on hitting until he understood that no, there was no such thing as *dying* to renounce her hand. She'd be shamed, to say the least, and her father *would* be mad, terribly mad. Furthermore, she wouldn't admit her charms as a woman had failed on him. She wouldn't admit it, and she wouldn't, for all that was sacred, fail in getting married. Her father had done his best to keep her *locked* away from most of the fun things she could have been doing in her life, marriage was her way out. She was sure, pretty sure, Toruna wouldn't have minded the least, and would have probably even gone to great length, to make her feel *special*, even if not loved. She just had to bring him back to Kumogakure, while him still being Toruna, and not yet Naruto. The man would obey the promises. Then he could die and become Naruto again, for what she cared, as long as she got her freedom.

Still, by the time she had arrived, actually, to the outskirts of Konoha, all she could see was thick smoke and fire raging around, as a giant black snake was spitting out fire, while a rock encrusted one seemed heavily intertwined with the black one, and both seemed to circle around the same position.

Shizuka stood very still, staring at a snake with a cigar in his mouth, eying her, from the gates. The fact there was a green-clad spandex man speaking to said snake was something utterly horrendous, and astonishingly impossible.

"I say it is most un-youthful of you not to warn us you had already brought to safety the villagers!" the green beast panted.

"We thought the girl would warn you…instead she dashed off on her own, Yoru and Scaly can provide back-up, you should however…" at that moment, at that precise moment, from the center of the village, where Jiraiya was running to catch an escaping Deva path, while a bit far off Yoru and Scaly were pounding, or trying to pound, on the fourth Hokage, who Hiraishin'd out of the way most of the times, trying to get a clear view of Saki to grab her and be gone from the village, in that moment, the Deva path stopped, and, like a sort of ripple in the water, everything was pulled away.

"Shinra Tensei" the next moment, buildings, rubble, corpses, everything in the area of Konoha was pushed to the side, leaving only a crater with the Deva path inside, who, seemingly unfazed, stood still for a brief moment.

In those moments, a giant-version of the rasengan crushed at him from behind, as Jiraiya, the toad sage, emerged from underground, where he had actually hidden to avoid the blast.

"The only place you don't push away, is under you! And you've got a five second time lapse!" with that yell, the Rasengan, poured with every ounce of chakra the toad sage possessed, slammed itself deeply into the Deva path, breaking him up in small piece, and sending his remains to fly around, as the toad sage panted for the attack done.

Tabako, in the meantime, reassessed his surroundings. He had become briefly a flying snake too, only by sheer force of the impact, and had now found himself, entangled to *the green beast of Konoha's* chain belt.

"We must hurry, youthful scale friend!" as Gai yelled that, charging ahead, Tabako began yelling too.

"LET ME GOOOOO" he hissed frantically, as his cigar had fallen from his mouth, "My smoke! I get really bitty if I don't get my cigar back! You! Back! Cigar! Smoke! Nicotine! I need my dose! I'm a good snake who wants a good dose of smoke!" as the snake literally tore down into sobs and shivers, Gai did feel piety, but he was already going to engage the ex-fourth Hokage, who had taken the moment of distraction, since the two giant snakes had been forced in a defensive position to protect the wounded woman, to dash forward and aim a lethal blow at Yoru.

The blow never came, as Maito Gai, kick at the ready, punched Minato Namikaze straight in the guts, opening his sixth gate in the meantime.

"Dainamikku Entorī! Hachimon Keimon!" just as he finished saying that, masses of swirling blue chakra that surrounded him took form, as the Fourth Hokage, narrowing his eyes, muttered.

"A man not to underestimate," before disappearing in a twirl, to reappear elsewhere, preparing to launch more Kunais around to have more area of action, only to find himself at sword point, by none other than his ex-teacher…

"Minato, stop this at once," Jiraiya whispered, "I know how Sensei must have felt fighting Orochimaru, please, do not force this upon me," he added, "surrender now."

"You think you're faster than me?" Minato whispered back, a trickle of blood exiting his mouth, as the kick from Gai's entrance had been felt, deeply.

"No," Jiraiya replied, "But I will act before you," as soon as he said that, his swords tried to pierce straight through the man's back, only to find him already gone, before raising his right arm to block the attack of what seemed like a wave of water, that nearly washed him away.

"We're retreating man!" Kisame yelled, "There's a change of plans!" as Kushina stood beside the shark-man, her chains ready creating a shield-like barrier around them, Minato nodded, from his spot, as he reappeared right next to his wife.

"Asa Kujaku!" Maito Gai, still with his sixth gate opened, charged at the barrier with his fists, generating waves of small fireball upon the friction of his knuckles against the air, before impacting against the barrier, even though the barbed hooks sprouting from it seemed to be wounding him, in truth it was just the result of his hands hitting against the barrier.

"Kushina, we have to go!" Minato replied, as, since the barrier was a dome, there was no way out of there if she didn't remove the barrier.

"Minato…I can't, not until he closes his gates! He's too fast, he'd hit me too!" as the red-haired woman spoke, Jiraiya took the moment to move closer.

"Kushina! Why are you doing this? Having killed your own son wasn't enough!"

"No! You too, Jiraiya-san? Why you too?" Kushina muttered, holding the barrier with her strengths, "Why did you choose Danzo over us? He used Naruto! He killed Naruto for the Kyuubi! He…"

"He didn't do a thing!" the female voice that broke the standoff, the female, clear, voice that broke the standoff, came from a red-haired girl, Katsumi, who had appeared with the snake-nins insignia, much like Saki had, and who was now staring, with her blue eyes, at the group.

"Katsumi…chan?" Kushina muttered in disbelief, as Minato, gasping, disappeared to reappear outside of the barrier, aiming to grab Katsumi, only to see her puff in smoke, and forcing him back inside the barrier, to avoid being hit by Jiraiya.

"Yeah! Uncle is innocent!" Saki yelled, holding her right shoulder, from atop Yoru's head, the Kyuubi's chakra already beginning to mend it, but it was still a deep wound…hadn't she summoned Scaly and Yoru…

"Kaa-san! Father's a liar!" another Katsumi yelled, from a nearby rooftop, "He's the one who killed Naruto! And you were the cause of it!"

"What? What's going on? Katsumi…what are you doing here? What is…" as Kushina was shocked, the barrier dwindled, having the woman lost concentration long enough, to make Gai finally push through, breaking it and aiming a strong punch straight ahead, towards Minato, only to find the blond man duck, trying to get to Kushina in time to bring her away with him, ignoring Kisame's pouting.

"Hey! I'm here too!" as the shark-man managed to use his Samehada to block the blow from Gai, albeit it resulted in him being actually thrown backwards, a feat that Tsunade herself hadn't managed.

"Frog Tongue!" Jiraiya's mouth extended a toad-like tongue, that circled Kushina and brought her closer to him, saving her, by mere inches, from Minato's hand, just as Gai himself spun around to land a fist on him, the Fourth Hokage disappeared in a flicker.

"What's going on!" Kushina finally snapped, chains breaking free of the toad-like tongue, "Katsumi! What's going on!"

The red-haired girl descended swiftly, moving closer to her mother, before explaining, with eyes watery from the emotion.

"Otou-san tricked you and me with seals to alter our memories, Kaa-san! He's the one who killed Naruto, who murdered people, who did all those bad things he said Danzo had done, he's the reason Naruto was a mindless weapon!"

"So that explains why you're still with him…" Jiraiya whispered, "but how do *you* know?"

"He told me," Katsumi replied, "he freed me from both Orochimaru's grasp and Otou-san's seals…and he told me," albeit he did speak with some spite for a while, and he did hurt her too, for a while, he then stopped that, actually coming to at least sustain her presence near him.

"How did you get here then? You were in Ame! Ame's a month away from here!" Kushina exclaimed.

"He attacked the orphanage when you left, grabbed me while defeating Konan-san, and took a month to get to…decide? In the end he let me go…he brought me here too, and suggested how I should act..." she whispered, "He's really smart, you know?" she added, "Planned everything. Really smart."

"Planned what?" Jiraiya queried, as he was now visibly more relaxed, and pissed at the brat for having used Konoha as bait. He'd have a talk with him later on, at the present, he eyed the falling form of Gai, tired after such a use of opening his gates, while Kisame had preferred to run away, the coward he was.

"Well he…"

"WHERE IS HE!" a female voice yelled, entering the main gate, just as everyone turned their gaze to a buxom beauty that made Jiraiya's eyes assume a lecherous attitude.

"He… who?" Yoru hissed, feigning ignorance, as Scaly-chan hissed something, only to be hissed back by Yoru, and dispersing together with Saki.

"THE IDIOT!" Shizuka yelled, "That damn bastard! Thinks he can fool me, huh! Come on! Toruna of the snakes! Get him over here this instant!"

"Well…I can't do that, he's resting…you know, fighting for nearly an entire day, thousands of clones around…it's not really *that* easy," as Yoru said that, Shizuka grabbed the giant Manda-like snake by the tail, and then pulled him backwards, so that his face hit the ground, with a display of strength that maybe only Tsunade would have been able to pull off.

"You see this?" she said, pointing at her right hand, where her fist was flickering with wind chakra, "This is a wind fist. You either tell me where he is, and bring me there this instant, or I swear to Kami I'll pull your tongue out with this," as she snarled that, somewhere, in Ryuchi cave, Toruna still laying on the floor groaned, as Kuro hissed to the man.

"She definitively isn't the homely type," as he finished hissing that, Toruna muttered back.

"Thank Kami I still have to take care of that man…not meeting her till…" that's when he heard from the smoke cloud, coming in as a voice.

"Fine! I'm bringing you…" Toruna did try, on his account, to stand up, but his muscles nearly broke into pieces, as, with cold sweat, he barely wobbled three steps towards his room, before a puff of smoke later revealed Yoru…and a really, really, angry Shizuka.

"I yield," Toruna whispered, with a small groan, before falling back down on the floor. Fainted men get mercy, right?

Meanwhile, a worried Anko and C finally managed to haul an utterly fighting Tayuya inside Konoha, only to be greeted by the most incredible amount of…nothing. The entire city, barring the Hokage's monument, who was strangely missing both the fourth's and the fifth's head, had been destroyed, leaving behind only a crater…and the village's gates.

*Nagato's area*

He slowly looked up, to Itachi, whose eyes stared down at him for a brief moment, and then, it was all over. How can you achieve peace, when your head is rolling on the ground, courtesy of a katana that can cut through anything? Nagato's body, detached from its head, slowly fell downwards, as his head was taken by a snake, who popped out of existence together with him.

There, next to Itachi, stood Toruna…or better yet, Omega.

"Good Kami…told you he'd be surprised by seeing Katsumi here…moment of distraction…only a brief moment of distraction, and even the strongest shinobi can die, Itachi-san," Omega whispered, turning around to leave, "That's why being unpredictable is the strongest feat a ninja can achieve," and with those final parting words, Omega disappeared, reverse summoning himself to Ryuchi's cave hatchery.

The Original one was getting tended to, his chakra was no longer in danger of exhausting himself, and they'd survive through the night…

"Mokuton, Rinnegan, Sharingan…I don't know you…Tobi, or Uchiha Madara…but I know that, no matter what, you will face someone equally prepared to fight you," and with those words, Omega turned to his test subjects. He just had two corpses he had to repair, attend to, and then, later on, bring back to life…Chiyo's jutsu would work just fine…after he mastered Genjutsu, to have *someone* sacrifice his life in his place…giving Saki her parents back was fine…but he didn't have to die himself, after all…he still had to become stronger.

Strong enough, to battle all enemies of Kumo.

Strong enough, to protect all his friends.

Strong enough, to never be defeated.

Strong enough, to mark a new era.

The era of the snakes.

**Author's notes**

**Damn it! Damn it! I understand why a lot of stories of Naruto go unfinished! Having to describe multiple battles in a single chapter gets on the nerves of people, who have to cross check on Narutopedia and the likes Jutsus and the rest. I carried on, however, thanks to the comments and reviews of you folks, and I just couldn't let you down.**

**And if somebody is thinking…**

"**Naruto, he's getting more and more like a *successful* Orochimaru," then you're right!**

**By the way, the statue of demonic binding is *not* placed, in the beginning, in Tobi's lab, but in Amegakure proximity, so before you start pointing that out, it will then be moved to Tobi's lab, but it stood precisely in Pain's temple before.**

**Orochimaru wouldn't have lasted longer, he actually isn't all that strong…he's just kind of…relentless? I mean, really, last Naruto chapter (Spoilers beware!) he's alive, again, only from a bit of kabuto's flesh and Anko's cursed seal…just how much must one kill him, to have him STAY dead?**

**Ayame actually had little screen time, and since he didn't develop much of a relation with her, (barring him eating ramen and she simply smiling behind the counter) there isn't much common ground. Though that could potentially change, I've already *set the sail*, Shizuka will get it. Sorry folks. I simply can't write *Incest* (not even *Wincest*? Is that how it's called?) Anyway, with that said, I do have the distinctive feeling this chapter is missing something. There were so many things going around, that, I repeat, I do understand those who actually stop writing, claiming rewritings or simply moving on to something else entirely. I didn't, as I'm a stubborn mule of unparalleled knuckleheadedness (is that even a word?) so, I simply couldn't let you folks down.**

**Fun facts:  
Kabuto doesn't know Orochimaru's dead…yet. **

**Sasuke is probably going to die a really, really, horrible death, eventually.**

**Shizuka can hunt while running in a straight line, Nadeshiko village secret of *Eating and burning calories on the run*.**

**Karin's future in an unknown equation. (Not for me, obviously)**

**Tora the cat is no longer in Konoha. Holding true to his promise, Kuro sent Tabako to free the kindred in spirit, who now is happily in Ryuchi cave, taking the sun outside. (You'll see him one day)**

**Normal facts:  
the fight with B and Yugito was cut short, I'm painfully aware of it, but, the point is…how could it have gone differently? Considering one side had to act by surprise by throwing everything forward, and the other was caught by surprise? **

**The group moved to intercept the incoming jounins from the stadium, so there was no-one when Anko and C reached the village, (Jiraiya *did* move faster than them, and *did* have the advantage)**

**Furthermore, I've gone over the 22K marks of words. **

…**22 and more than half.**

**Author's final notes:**

**Pain is now my least favorite character. Really, describing over six/seven actions of every single character, battles with more than one enemy per side, and the likes…really Pain, you're a Pain! So yeah, instead of having him fight, once more, using his final moves, I used trickery to have him die. Thank Kami Naruto knows how to convince people to work with him, and as Itachi distracted Pain with a Genjutsu, during the appearance of Katsumi, Naruto struck him down…Naruto…or Omega? **


	27. SH: Foreboding

Twenty-seventh chapter

Toruna of the snakes woke up groggily. He could feel his muscles tense, and relax, he could feel the spasm from his chakra system finally getting to stable condition, he could hear the slithering of the snakes nearby, but mostly, he could see a figure perched over him, in a white lab coat, and with a medical clipboard, staring at him with his very own face.

"Omega?" Toruna queried, as a massive headache took place instants after the word. Gritting his teeth, the man closed his eyes, letting the star dance in the darkness of his closed eyelids for a moment, before slowly opening them again.

"Easy now, you've got yourself an overused chakra system, nearly ripped to shreds muscles from overuse, and you actually had the balls to take a Tsukuyomi with Itachi," Omega muttered back, "You're an idiot, still you should be fine: Idiots are hard to kill after all," with those words, the clone dropped the medical clipboard on the bed desk, and, looking at his puzzled self's face, he couldn't help but smirk.

"You fainting is what saved your from Shizuka's wrath, but she's just outside, in wait. I'll tell her you're still in need of some rest…which is true," Omega pointed out, holding a hand on Toruna's right shoulder, "Don't you dare move, I'm serious," as he finished speaking, Toruna simply muttered a groan of understanding, before closing his eyes once more, taking some more shut-eye.

Omega turned to leave, opening the door of the small cave that had been furnished with a bed, a desk, a drawer, a dresser, a table and a couple of chairs, all obviously scaled and in truth hiding snakes. This was Toruna's room, and on his desk, actually, one would have seen the three-hundred fifty-five pages of his new book *The Revenge of Scales*, the completing volume of the Hiss Collection.

Shizuka, outside the door, waited for Omega to speak and tell her if Toruna, or Naruto, was able to withstand a beating.

"He can't withstand a beating, Shizuka," Omega muttered back at the woman, reading her mind, albeit not actually reading it, as much as understanding her body language, "And you should get some rest too, think of it as a rest day," he added.

"Fine, but as my betrothed…even if you're a clone, you'll do just fine: let's get going to Kumo and get married," as she spoke those words, grabbing Omega by the wrist, the clone sighed.

"No, there is still much that I have to do, the recent batch of eggs is promising, and I can't waste time in fickle things like love or marriage," as Omega shrugged the hand off, turning to walk, Shizuka's eyes narrowed.

"Excuse me…are you really a clone?" she queried, as she slowly began moving behind the man.

"Yes, but as a more long-lived clone, in order to maintain sanity's appearance," Omega explained, as he waved at one of the Tail snakes that was on guard duty, "all those who live for more than a day get a personality based on their occupation," as he explained that, he high fived and was given a tail clap back, from a Scale snake, "I am Omega, the end, the one who takes care of the last additions to our ranks, I take care of the eggs and the recently born, and I'm also a researcher, of sorts."

Shizuka said nothing, as he followed the man in the lab coat, until he reached a more ample laboratory, where bodies stood on cold rock tables, the air around them turning to a freezing point, or nearly freezing one, as small air clouds escaped both Omega's and Shizuka's mouth.

"But you're still Toruna, or Naruto…right?" Shizuka queried back, and as she did, Omega's eyes narrowed.

"So you found out…well, it was inevitable, I suspect," he replied, shrugging as his fingers grabbed a pair of plastic white gloves, a scalpel, and then he began making incisions on the sort of *flower body* of who once was the Yami of Shinobis.

"Isn't that…the fifth Hokage?" Shizuka whispered, looking at the man who was, with practiced ease and calm, cutting chunks of flesh that had turned into a sort of wood-like substance, and was moving them to the side.

"He became Hokage, because I put him there," Omega whispered, "we had a deal, and he betrayed it," he added, "Thus I took back everything I gave him…and with interests," as he finished, he began extracting from the man's arm the now closed Sharingans, all of which were now destroyed, "a pity, I would have liked to see what giving a snake the sharingan would have entailed…" he muttered.

"You killed him?" Shizuka muttered: the man, Toruna, killed the fifth Hokage? He was supposed to be a neutral entity! This was on par with high treason!

"He attacked first, if that is your question," Omega replied, "and he hid the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki from everyone else, and refused," obviously, he didn't actually say he refused giving it back, but it had been subtly understood, "to give it back," with those words, Omega thought he had said everything he had to, and he returned to the task at hand.

Shizuka took a couple of steps backwards, narrowing her gaze.

"So you know where he is, right? Let's go and bring him back to Kumo, then we can get married, and…"

"No can do," Omega replied, shaking his head, "She is but a victim of this man's ploy…so it's my duty to correct the mistakes of the past."

"You just want out of the Iron Land's laws!" Shizuka exclaimed, "I'll grab your real body and bring you straight in front of my father's gaze, and then we'll get married! And that will be…"

"You still intend on getting married?" Omega queried, puzzled, "Why is that?"

"That's none of your…" Shizuka bit her lip, as Omega, simply, moved closer to the woman.

"It is. The moment you decided to menace my body, it became my business. What is it that makes you wish to be actually married to one…like me?" the man queried, as some snakes slithered in, blocking the woman's exit.

"Are you going to kill me?" Shizuka muttered back, barely holding her breath. She knew she could run, the man was but a clone, but still, she wasn't sure anymore of what to think.

"No, I want answers. What is it that makes you think I'd be such a great husband, huh? If you know who I am, then why don't you inquire about how I actually am what I am? I'm what? Twenty-five? Yet the son of the Raikage was meant to be no more than sixteen, isn't it?" at that notion, Shizuka's eyes narrowed.

"But the Raikage didn't refute the claim!" the woman snapped back, "So you must be him!"

"Really? What if you're making a mistake? What if I'm simply not who I claim to be, what if there's a reason? What if there isn't one? But, more specifically…why would you care?" Omega muttered, in no more than a low whisper, "Tell me your story, Shizuka…why is it, that you really want to marry me instead of doing what you know is right?"

Shizuka bit her lip, her gaze moving sideways, before finally muttering…

"Your eyes…they're like those of my father," she whispered, "The very same sad eyes, filled with grief, I just want to know why," she let her right hand move up and down her left arm, as she stared back at the man, said motion actually putting her breasts on a more *viewable* position, "I want to help you…"

Omega snorted, then he began chuckling, and in the end he started to laugh out loud as Shizuka's face first showed surprise, and then scorn.

"What is it?" she muttered, gritting her teeth.

"I saw this lie coming from a mile's away. Just what I would have expected from Miss Iron Land, can't lie to save her life," he replied, "Just too fake to be real, girl," he pointed out, as he avoided a wind-enhanced fist to the face, "calm down girl! I'm a clone!" he added, as he slowly gestured for her to cool off.

"So it didn't work, huh?" she spoke, "You either are extremely frigid or extremely smart-ass, never mind, I want *you* to marry me, and that's final," she added, crossing her arm, "come on, don't tell me you don't like what you see!"

"Oh…you want to be a widow swiftly," Omega's eyes lit with understanding, "you want to marry, be a widow, and be left alone afterwards…smart idea," he added, as Shizuka was about to say something, "Why didn't you say that sooner?" At that, the woman's eyes bulged in surprise, what was he saying now?

"What do you mean? You'd have accepted?" she queried, her eyes dashing through the man's feature, who seemed so serious now, that it didn't look like the same man of five minutes before.

"Obviously I would! As long as you don't try to claim me back, that is," he replied, as the stare from the woman was one of serious doubt, he muttered, "Well, if you want to be a widow, who am I to say no? Toruna will die, Naruto will live, everyone will be happy," he pointed that out just as he moved towards two bodies covered by thick white sheets, "at least…I hope," he added, as he slowly slid the first sheet slightly down, to stare at the mess that once was the body of Hayate Gekko.

"I'll have to put him back in one piece," he whispered to himself, "then I'll need a couple of gullible fools to use that technique…" he closed his eyes, humming just so slightly a tune, as he began deftly moving his fingers over the cracked bones, pushing them back into their sockets, operating without even using instruments. Had there still been fresh blood, it would have probably turned messy, since even Shizuka, for all her training, had to turn around while being slightly green.

"It will need a new left arm and half a left leg," Omega whispered, "I'll send Epsilon around, brigands do seem to pop out from nowhere these days," he muttered, as he replaced the sheet, now a slight red hue, on the body, to cover him from sight.

"What were you doing?" Shizuka asked, slightly holding her breakfast in her stomach.

"Repairing a corpse, what do you think I was doing, picking daffodils?" Omega replied with a sneer, before turning to yet another corpse.

"Captain Tree, sounds like a superhero name, doesn't it?" he muttered, a slight venomous tone dripping from his words, as the face of Yamato came into view, from under the sheet it was hidden.

"You knew him?" Shizuka queried.

"If I knew him?" Omega snorted… "He was one of my creators," he replied, his eyes losing themselves in recollections.

*Flashback*

"Three hours of sleep! Not a minute more!" Tree snapped at him, waking him up immediately, as his muscle, sore from the last night training, were blazing with pain and stiff. Monster was up without a complaint, complaining was a sure way for more pain. Pain wasn't a good thing. It was bad.

He had woken half a minute later that he was meant to be, he knew what the punishment was, he always knew, but how could he not sleep half a minute more, if it meant remembering the warm ramen?

It was ramen, at least? Tree's punch connected with his nose, first thing broken during training, and rammed the child's body against the wall, before kicking him, without malice, there was never malice in Tree's action, out of the cell, for the daily washing. Kicks, punches, hits, they all came to him for training purposes, or for scolding, but without malice. There was never anger, rage, hatred: they were void punches, devoid of emotions. There was no laughing, no yelling in displeasure, even the snaps and bouts of Tree were but monotone in voice: his warnings were without concern, care, or displeasure. He wasn't annoyed: he was just doing his job.

The corridor's second to last door on the right side opened into a large pool of cold water, there was no warm water, it made one weak. Obviously since he was late, he was forcefully cleaned, usually he could get to clean himself, but since he was late, he had to be forcefully yanked by the hair, dropped inside like a mop to be cleaned, and then thrown out, to impact once more against a cold stone surface. His blue eyes looked around for any sign of a towel, but there were none. He had been thrown inside still dressed, after all, the tunic for sleeping he had been given was now drenched in the cold water, and his skin was showing the goose bumps, while his teeth clattered against each other from the freezing sensation, another mistake, showing said emotions was another mistake.

"You cold! A Root knows no cold!" yanked by his hair again, he was pulled, once more, towards the equipment room. He hurriedly took off his tunic, to swiftly dress, biting his lips when his cold finger stopped responding, but never the less managing to close all the laces and buttons of the leather training armor, before getting kicked in the back once more, to move, this time, towards the training grounds.

"I'll have you sweat till you're warm, monster! Move it! A Monster has no need to be slow!" another kick, and Monster sped up his pace, glad that for the brief two minutes of walk Tree didn't kick him again. He had seen other kids, like him, all trained into families, a Mother trainer, a Father trainer and a Brother. He only had a brother to train with: a boy was it, or a girl, maybe. The hair was a bit long, shoulder length, a pale blond, nothing strange out of it, no redeeming features: all four years old looked the same, with a mask on and the same training armor.

Taijutsu was the only training for them, the art of body blows and jabs, right hooks, fingers in the eyes, dirty fighting, all quick, effective, no flashing around, parading one's own strength. Keeping the secret of one's own skills until it was necessary to use them. He didn't even know Brother's name, nor did Brother know his. He was Brother and Monster was Monster.

Weapon training would come soon, Kunai use, wire use, shuriken use, the art to survive afterwards, to scavenge from seemingly impossible places, first aid, everything needed to become the perfect weapon of Konoha. He was to become a perfect weapon, he knew it, Danzo-sama had told him that, if he became a perfect weapon, the hits, the cold, the shivers, they would all go away, and he'd have ramen too. Warm ramen!

That's why, when the day came, to become a perfect weapon by slicing the neck of Brother, even though they had trained for more than a year, he did so without qualms. It wasn't even a kill, a murder, or something to think more than a second about. He was Monster, and Brother wasn't Monster, thus he could die, so that Monster could evolve. He was meant to be Konoha's Perfect Weapon…he had just to prove it.

*End Flashback*

"He was my trainer in Root," Naruto muttered, "never displayed emotions, I didn't know wherever to fear him or admire him, didn't know if he was a father figure or not, but he was the closest thing I had to a Father Trainer, that much, I'll admit," he whispered.

"Yet you killed him?" Shizuka asked, slowly moving closer to the clone.

"Why wouldn't I? He was my enemy, and, like he too used to say, *Enemies should be killed, never given the chance to come back at you, and hurt you…unless you can turn them against one another*," he muttered, barely repressing a grin.

He then moved to another body that highly resembled that of Kabuto, and smirked, before turning his gaze to Shizuka.

"Do you know why good guys always win?" he queried, with a sort of impish smile.

"That's just in fairy tales, you know…" Shizuka replied, not understanding just why they had gone over said argument.

"Because they trust each other, and, by consequence, they know they have each other backs…bad guys instead mistrust each other all time, thus…all you need is the right push, and the balance on their side is tipped…and that makes them weaker," as he pointed that out, he gently tapped on Kabuto's dead body, letting it dissolve back into its former form, of a dead Oto-ninja, "subtle skill, isn't it? So useful…for so many purposes…just fill a corpse with chakra, have it self-cycle for a while…and you have this."

"Why would you need a chakra-filled corpse?" Shizuka muttered… a corpse wouldn't need chakra, would it?

"Well…except for the appearance Genjutsu, it also works, let's say, in couple with another Genjutsu…to make some things…*real*," with that chuckle, Omega turned to leave the place, not before whispering to Shizuka.

"If you want to get married, wait till the Original wakes up and I disperse, he'll know by then, and he'll accept, but this is a deal, girl," as he said that, his voice dripped with a slight threating tone, "if you betray your side…know that I will not waste time in hearing excuses," and with those final words, he left the woman behind, who, slowly, turned around before leaving the room too. No use staying near dead bodies, and it was *kind* of creepy.

*Elsewhere*

"We did it," Deidara muttered, looking at the blond woman's corpse on the ground of the cave, "We weren't interrupted this time around!" he actually exclaimed that with a cherished attitude, something that made Konan frown, in her silence. The woman with blue short hair hadn't talked any more than necessary, since the death of Nagato…nor would she start anytime sooner, not until his murder, Toruna, as Itachi had told her, would be captured.

"Yes…but I do feel something is off," Minato muttered, staring at the woman on the ground.

"I felt it too," Kakuzu growled, "like if at a certain point, something in the chakra changed," he added.

"Itachi, you felt anything?" Kisame queried to the Uchiha who, strangely, wasn't on his statue finger any longer.

"Zetsu, where's Itachi?" Minato narrowed his eyes, as the half-black and half-white man narrowed his own too.

"**Here he should be.** Clearly he's not here...can't sense him…" Zetsu replied, before closing his eyelids, to concentrate, "**Impossible this is. **Out of our range? How can he have gone that much far?"

"What's your range, Zetsu?" Minato queried, slightly nervous.

"Five kilometers," was the reply, as the half-plant man slowly started burrowing in the ground, "I'll have to warn Madara about this," he growled, "at least the Nibi has been sealed…"

"I still can't believe I've been working for Uchiha Madara this all time," Minato muttered.

"Well, either *he* came out, or you'd have already been killed, charging straight into Konoha while yelling curses, *tsk*," Kisame muttered, barely repressing a grin at the sight of the ex-Hokage, so much more *docile* when he had been promised he'd have his family back, and under a really long-lasting Genjutsu from Madara himself, to guarantee *they'd open their eyes and love him!*. It was something kind of mad, even for the swordsman of the mist who had killed a squad of crypto-analysts to avoid the codes being captured. Still, he hadn't actually expected Tobi to bring out the *big guns* like showing off his face. Or at least *that* face. It wasn't his real one, obviously. Kisame knew, having seen it once, when the man had removed his mask in front of him, showing his control of Yagura, the ex-Kage of the Hidden Mist.

Actually, looking around, he, Zetsu and maybe Kakuzu, maybe because he actually didn't know if the man knew or not, where the only one who actually knew who they were working for.

Kakuzu was annoyed, a great deal annoyed, as he had yet to go hunt some more Missing-Nins for their bounties. He had entered the organization because of the possibility to become rich, by hunting bounties, getting money, and becoming the greatest mercenary company of the world, with the biggest possible weapon of the world: A statue filled with the Jinchuuriki's powers. Still, why was it that he felt something, a gut instinct, in the back of his mind, telling him to mistrust it? Why was that skill that had made him survive the ambush of the Takigakure elders, escape with their hearts and forbidden jutsus, make him so wary, now that the Bijuu count had been reduced just to the Hachibi and the Kyuubi?

Minato was sighing in relief, but also secretly frowning: he would have wanted to know just how Katsumi had ended up in Konoha, just how Toruna of the snakes had connected together with the snakes of Kumogakure, and also how the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki had grown to become a woman, and had obviously been slightly trained and maybe even brainwashed by Toruna. Still, the most important thing was that Konan had gone slightly over the edge in her grief, plotting revenge the moment Nagato's death had been told to her, and had closed the gaps. Toruna of the snakes had been in Amegakure, and had then seemingly managed to reach Konoha in time, no, even more than in time…he was already there to begin with, the snakes that had sprouted from the ground, to protect the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki from him had a knowledge of the situation, that much had to be clear. They had been ready the moment they had set foot in there. This meant only one thing: there was a spy in the organization. That spy had turned out to be none other than Itachi then. Still, why escape now out of all the time? He could have brought the Nibi Jinchuuriki with him, and make his escape, and probably get granted some sort of protection from Kumogakure, but instead…

It was a moment, before Uchiha Madara emerged next to Zetsu, and his face was contorted with anger.

"The Nibi hasn't been taken! This," he yelled, giving a sharp kick to the fallen body, that, after a brief moment, stopped being a blond-haired woman, to turn out as a gruff looking man, probably a petty thief or brigand, "isn't Yugito Nii! Itachi fooled you lot! I can't believe with all of you here you'd get fooled! Kisame! He was your partner, don't you know something!" as Madara turned his gaze to Kisame, the man frowned, narrowing his eyes.

"He didn't say a thing, leader, I don't know what's going on through his mind…nor how he actually managed the feat…Deidara-chan," as he said that with a smirk, Deidara's eyes narrowed, "has trained his own eye to avoid Genjutsu, and he had it out for all the extraction process!"

"Hey you damn fish! Had you poured more chakra into the thing than me then maybe I would have had time to actually LOOK at the body! Still! Who says she's simply been swapped before?"

"Are you implying *I* didn't guard her well enough, you mouth-freak?" Kakuzu growled.

"We should all calm down now…" Minato suggested, raising his hands and making the *calm down* gesture, only to simply worsen the situation, as accusations ran across the entirety of the organization members, except Konan, who stood eerily quiet, until she finally spoke.

"Toruna of the snakes!" she snapped, getting the attention of everyone else, who looked at her with a perplexed look, even Madara and Zetsu.

"He's responsible for everything! How can you not see it? Since his arrival, everything has been going down! IT's him! He is the fault! We must take him down immediately!" Konan yelled, "If we don't, then peace will never be achieved!"

"How are we going to track him down, however?" Minato queried, "He's been an incognita for a long time…we should try and pull together everything we know about the man, from the very beginning," he added.

"I know he uses Kage Bunshins, and he calls them *Epsilon*," Konan pointed out, "his Taijutsu is top notch, and he easily found out where the Orphanage, and Katsumi-chan, were."

"He can summon and reverse summon to snakes and from snakes," Madara pointed out, "furthermore, he's an Uzumaki, since he can use chains of chakra to…"

"No…" Minato muttered, as his face paled, his knees beginning to wobble, "NO!" he screeched.

"What is it, yellow flash? Recalling someone?" Kisame sneered, looking at the man.

"HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!" Minato roared, "I KILLED HIM! I extracted the Kyuubi from him! HE can't be alive! HE'S DEAD!"

"The previous Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki was your son, wasn't he?" Madara said, narrowing his sharingan eyes, "but he shouldn't be more than sixteen, at most, you can't possibly tell me he's…"

"He grew up through a mishap with hero water during a mission in Takigakure," Minato replied, with words filled with ill-controlled anger, "he was like sixteen years old in the physique three years ago…so if he kept growing…"

"Fits the bill," Kakuzu muttered, "NOW I recall the bastard's first words!"

"What is it, Kakuzu?" Deidara queried.

"The first time me and Hidan met Toruna of the snakes, he pointed at my Takigakure headband, and told me he had taken something from my village! I thought it was Jutsus…he took the Hero's water! That's why he's that strong! His chakra can increase tenfold…but it should only be temporary as an effect, and it should reduce his lifespan," Kakuzu pointed out.

"No, in his case," Minato replied, shaking his head, just how much blind had he been? "He kept it permanently, and plus…he aged…I should have suspected this! But I checked his pulse, I checked his damn pulse and it was dead! There was no way he could still be alive!"

"Then either Kami decided to send him back on a whim," Madara muttered, "Or you simply underestimated him, something that is now biting at us…which means we'll have to go all out on the man, as fast and as hard as possible. We need either the Hachibi, the Nibi, or the Kyuubi, at least one of those Jinchuurikis needs to be captured, and for that, our best chance is to march on Kumogakure, we do have a layout of their defenses, do we?" as Madara queried to Kakuzu, the man in question nodded.

"Yes…Motoi-chan," he chuckled as he tapped gently on one side of his chest, where one of his hearts resided, "was such a heartwarming fellow…" letting the horrible double-sense wash over the rest of the group, many shivered, but said nothing, as Konan narrowed her eyes.

"To take on Kumo, even by surprise…we'd still need an army," at that, Zetsu smiled.

"**Oh…but an army we do possess**, yeah, and it should work flawlessly, our plan."

"Once that is done, we will move in, and, since we are not taking any chances, I will be going all-out with the statue itself, even if it's incomplete, it should still be able to make quick work of everything…" Madara pointed out, just as, in that moment, Deidara mulled a thought.

_Why do I have a bad feeling?_

*Konoha*

Kushina was biting her lip to the point of drawing blood. She had been doing this for a long while, and, as the Red Hot Habanero, it simply meant she was overly distressed. Minato being corrupted by power? She could understand it was a possibility, she felt more anger for the man now than anything else. Still, the real reason she as distressed was because of the flood of memories, and words, and discussions, that she had held, from her side of the chakra suppressing cell, to the other side of it, where Katsumi, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Kakashi and even a certain Anko Mitarashi, had been talking to her about the hell she, she herself, with her very own hands, had brought to the boy. That was why she was distressed. She had no explanations, no answers as to why she had actually acted like that. Truth be told, Tsunade *had* told her the reason, the Kyuubi's chakra synching with hers, since she held some pieces of Yin chakra within, and that had apparently screwed her up, since the Yin chakra governed imagination and Genjutsus, thus suggestions and brain patterns…it had sent her on a thought that each lump of chakra feels when he's separated from the source: To be together once more.

The Fox's Yin chakra had thus slowly overwritten her brain patterns, acting like nothing less than an extremely powerful Genjutsu, throwing her on the only set course possible: reunion. It had simply worsened to the point where, eventually, she'd have either tore apart Naruto's seal, or eaten him. Passing through various other stages that had made the woman cringe, as, with memories, so came the recollection that she *had* gone close, so close, to actually touching her own son…and not in a motherly way.

The boy had been scared senseless, she recalled, the first night, and yet to her, in the moment, it had seemed simply normal. What normal mother gazes an entire night on her children, touching his lips with the tip of her fingers? None!

So, right now, she was biting her lip, because on the other side, Tsunade stood, with a recently placed upon Hokage's hat, having been *forced* to take upon the mantle. It was either that, or Kakashi…and Kakashi had already started planning Icha-Icha books conventions as first thing, instead of actually getting down repairs for the village's sorry state.

Luckily the Hokage's monument hadn't been touched. That meant that holding cells, refuges, supplies for emergencies, and necessities were all there, so the population hadn't starved at all, and, thanks to an income from Suna of carpenters and workers, strange indeed, since it would have normally taken more than a month to reach Konoha, they had begun working in earnest.

The truth was, once queried, that the Kazekage's savior had simply asked the Kage to send to Konoha help, at a specific time, and not a moment sooner. So the Kage's savior, the man who had seemingly defeated Danzo and whisked his body away, the man who was also, according to Katsumi's word, her son, was now nowhere to be seen, much to Anko's displeasure...who had taken it all out on her, it seemed.

"Anyway, Kushina, if everything goes fine, you'll probably be freed soon enough, and then, maybe, you'll catch up with Katsumi-chan," Tsunade said, with a hopeful tone, as the red haired woman simply nodded, albeit her face sported a frown.

"Tsunade-san…" she whispered, "I…I don't know if I'll be able to go on like nothing ever happened…as a shinobi too…I mean…the things I did, the things I actually thought," as she stressed the last word, recollection of how she would have murdered some girls, barely Genins, or even her own assigned Genin, rolled into her mind, and how she had acted with Yakumo-chan…it was making her shiver deeply.

"They weren't your real thoughts, nor actions, Kushina…I know some stuff you did, but your …" Kushina flinched, at the word that was meant to come but never came, as Tsunade changed the last words to, "that man, that man did stuff much more worse…and without reason, he is at fault for you too: using the Yin release seal to store Kyuubi chakra, out of all the possible chakras!" the woman snapped, "Why the hell didn't he use a bit of his brain beforehand?"

"Katsumi-chan will come by later, right?" Kushina whispered, after a couple of minutes of silence.

"That she will, Kushina, she's the only connection with Na…Toruna-san, after all," Tsunade replied, "her and Saki-chan seem to have become close…they trained a bit under the man, after all," no need to call him a *boy*, even if the age was one thing, the mental age was another.

"Yeah…" Kushina hinted a smile, "Katsumi kept talking about how he's really strong and knows a lot of things," she added.

"He also plays dirty too!" yelled a voice on the other side of the prison, behind another set of iron bars, and chakra suppressing seals, stood Tayuya, having been brought there by C and Anko, and being another one of the guests of the prison of Konoha.

"A shinobi should play dirty," Tsunade replied, raising an eyebrow, "as for you, are you going to talk anytime soon?"

"Why would I? I get to hear all those nice stories about how that woman there nearly jumped on her own son: I knew Orochimaru couldn't be the only one with boys in his head!"

"I wasn't in control of my mental faculties!" Kushina snapped, a nervous tick appearing on her forehead, "I'm kicking your ass when I get out 'ttebayo!"

"Just try it! I always wanted a girl-toy! I'm sure I can get you into Kinky stuff with those chains of yours!" Tayuya replied with a howl of laughter.

"Oh shut up you!" Tsunade ranted, "If you love chains I can have you chained to the wall, you know?"

At that menace, Tayuya closed her mouth, albeit she did narrow her eyes slightly growling at the Hokage.

Meanwhile, not too far away from the village, two dirtied Kunoichis, covered in scratches, with their hair filled with twigs and branches, finally stumbled upon Konoha's gates, having been lost, and having taken time to readdress their position with the stars, before finally managing to stumble upon those damn iron gates and in the village beyond.

Or of what remained of said village, since, immediately past the gates, there were really steep stairs to descend, made in rock, before reaching the base of the crater that once harbored Konoha, and that, as of the moment, seemed to harbor the citizens of the city and the shinobi.

The first thought of the two girls, who had dashed towards the closest Jounin, that had turned out to be Kakashi, as his silver hair was quite noticeable in the midst of the crowd, was that Konoha had been subjected to a meteorite rain, since, after all, there was no other way something could simply destroy the village known as the strongest out of all the hidden villages.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled, as she looked around frantically, "what happened here?"

"Glad to see you made it back," Kakashi simply replied, eying the two girls for a moment, before answering, "the group known as Akatsuki targeted Konoha, hoping to get the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki," at that moment, Yakumo exclaimed, interrupting the silver-haired Jounin.

"But that's impossible! We didn't have him! Toruna had been called for that! He called off the…"

"Toruna-san," Kakashi stressed the word, "knew full well that, it seems, but obviously the Akatsuki didn't, so, when they came here, knowing the Kyuubi should have been here, since Danzo, the EX," he stressed that word again, "fifth Hokage, freed the fourth Hokage on the condition that he'd bring back the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki back to Konoha…a feat he did, actually," at those words, both Sakura and Yakumo paled.

"Shouldn't this news be…secret?" Sakura queried, with her voice a bit low.

"Nope, can't be, not when you have damn fliers hanging around and being spread by none other than Toruna-san of the Hiss Collection," the man replied, narrowing his only visible eye, "and since he also sent word about how *reparations* should work out, well…Tsunade Senju is our new sixth Hokage, it seems," he added, with a light sigh, "I'd have so much wanted a Icha-Icha only library…for future children of the world!" as he said, a single tear fell from his eye, before returning serious.

"Anyway, Sakura, the new Hokage wanted to see you, and…there's a surprise waiting for you too," as Sakura raised an eyebrow, not understanding, a red blur tackled the pink haired girl on the ground, while yelling out loud.

"Sakura-chan! I missed you so much 'ttebayo!" Sakura's eyes bulged in shock for a moment, since the girl that had tackled her had red hair, clear blue eyes, a warm smile, and her face was precisely like that of Katsumi, and she was…she was back! Though she did wear strange scale-motif armor and had a headband protector with a strange symbol on it.

"Katsumi…chan?" Sakura muttered, slightly blushing as the girl in question had nodded while being still close to her, and, obviously, being on top of her as she had tackled her friend to the ground, after all.

Jiraiya, from his vantage point a bit far away, was already imagining this as a new Icha-Icha volume…something like, *Sisterly Teammates*, it would be a blast…ignoring the small blood dribble coming down from his nose, he slowly moved closer to them, as he *had* been talking to Katsumi till then, trying to get her to crack up the location of Ryuchi cave…only to be continuously taken aback when the girl changed argument, subject, or outright refused to answer, no matter the things he offered.

Heck, he had even offered to make her a toad sage! She had refused the training too!

Katsumi swiftly got back on her feet, bringing up Sakura too, and then, with a wide grin, she said.

"Toruna-san saved me!" "_Oniisan saved me!"_ was what her words actually meant, since she was, after all, beaming with joy.

"Anyway, you can catch up later, Katsumi-chan, Sakura is needed by the Hokage right now," Kakashi pointed out, as the red-haired girl nodded, before replying.

"Then I'll take her there!" and with that, the girl dashed off, holding Sakura by her right hand…just as the author of Icha-Icha had already begun thinking about making a script for a movie out of this…and that was when Yakumo looked around worriedly.

"Ehm…Is my family…" she queried.

"There were little to no casualties, Yakumo-san," Jiraiya replied politely, "those in the hospitals had been forced by triggered fire alarms to take refuge in the Hokage's mountain, the vast majority of civilians and shinobis were at the sports festival, and, all in all, our losses were really little…if they had come in any other day, then the toll would have been really heavy…especially with the destruction around," he added.

A thing the Toad hermit didn't mention was how the entire Root division had been utterly killed, slaughtered, butchered, or whatever term would have been more appropriate, all during the moment of the attack, with perfect military precision and, the Jiraiya had to admit, some means simply were too strange to even consider, as they defied common laws of gravity and logic. Some bodies had seemed to have been torn apart like if something, from within, had exploded, others had been literally stripped of their faces, or worst. Still…the really worrying thing was that there wouldn't even have been the need for an attack, since the hour of death of many Root members had been the same. Meaning whoever it was…it had dealt the strike with deadly art and grace.

*Ryuchi cave – Hours later*

"Plan Counter Assault is ready for full out glory sir!" Tabako yelled, just as someone, who looked like Toruna, except this guy wore a sort of Samurai armor on, and held a katana on his back, marched in the planning room.

"Don't yell that much…" Toruna muttered, "Is the original one still knocked out cold?" he queried, just as Tabako simply nodded, taking a deep and hearty puff from his cigar.

"Yeah, the news been *delivered*," Tabako chuckled at that, "Itachi arrived earlier, and he's *eager* if eager is how you can define an Uchiha whose face rarely shows emotions, to begin the treatment. He used Izanagi with success, and managed to free Yugito Nii from the clutches of Akatsuki. The Original still doesn't know about any of this, if he catches wind that we made a deal with Itachi, without his consent…"

"You know how Kuro is, and if he convinced me, then it means he can convince even the Original…or we can simply disperse and he'll be convinced never the less," Toruna replied with a shrug, before looking at the map of the elemental countries in front of him.

"So, we'll be claiming Otogakure as ours, right?" Tabako smirked, "The land of sound will become the land of snakes, and all will be upwards…I already imagine snake-nins going around, doing missions…painting fences white for D-level, and destroying countries in secret S-rank ones," he added, a small glint on his face.

"Let's hold that for later, first, we know for sure they have access to key-locations of Kumogakure, as they assaulted the area of the waterfall of truth…meaning they *knew* where it was at the moment," taking a pile of documents, directly…stolen…no, stolen was a bad term, directly taken from the Raikage's office, since there was a snake in the office of the Raikage of Kumogakure…who had contacted him first things first, when hell had broken loose. He had obviously contacted Itachi later…the Uchiha *was* interested in a way to avoid dying a horrible coughing wreck of a death he was in for…and he knew just the jutsu.

To say he was doing pretty things, overly chivalric things, was to go overboard. He was doing his interests, and, in doing his own, he just so happened to also do those of the people he cared for. Obviously, he was also doing Kuro's and his snakes interest…his in the sense of them being Kuro's family, and thus also his very own. Sure, the majority was scaled, but never the less…

"Tabako-Niisan," a voice, barely audible, muttered at the smoking rattlesnake who suddenly tensed, before looking around worriedly, until he saw a blue-scaled snake slither, leaving a small line of water behind him, and getting near the rattlesnake, the blue snake was barely half the length and height of the rattlesnake, yet the snake in question was *jumpy* to say the least, "Smoking is bad for your…"

"Umi-chan…I smoke, I'm still alive, thus smoking isn't bad," he replied trying to assume a senseish attitude, that simply failed to stick as the small blue snake simply made a sniff sound, before Tabako's cigar simply found itself drowned in a lake of tears…literally the same amount of a bucket thrown.

"Tabako-Niisan is going to DIE!" Umi cried out, wailing like only few kids could, "He's going to die and I can't save him!" she screeched, while keeping up her wails and sobs.

"HEY! Fine, fine! I'll turn it off for the moment," Tabako muttered, seeing that, still, his cigar *had* been drenched in water.

"So what are you doing here Umi-chan?" Toruna queried, as the blue snake lifted her head to watch the man, hissing back slowly, with a sort of grievous tone, albeit, to those who knew, that was *her* tone of voice.

"The real one woke up once more…and he's puzzled why there are visitors in here," at that, Toruna sighed, rolling his eyes over as he waved goodbye to Tabako, he did have a bomb to defuse.

Naruto had, in all actuality, taken the usual mood he had when he woke up after having suffered from chakra exhaustion before going to sleep: he was giggling. Only those who have felt chakra exhaustion, and then had their chakra ways filled again to the brim can understand *what* the sensation was. It was like going to bed while being extremely mopey, depressed, and utterly saddened one moment, and then waking up being extremely giddy, happy, energized, the other split second. Ryuchi's cave natural flow of chakra helped enormously, as he felt that a single night of rest in the cave was always better than an entire months outside, furthermore, it also was the safest place Naruto knew of, as only those actually invited by Hakuja Sennin himself or the snakes residing inside could enter the cave, to everyone else, the cave simply wasn't there, and there wasn't even a hill riddled with caves and holes, there was just…nothing important, a ravine, some rocks, nothing worthy of the time.

Still, the real problem wasn't that, it was that, after the brief moment of relax, he had obviously accessed Sage mode, letting the presences wash over him as he took in that…there were people in the caves. Two signatures, he recognized, the third, he was baffled as it was familiar, and he was also angry as the reason they were there in the first place…but he trusted Kuro, since, if he had been knocked out, it had to have been him to let them in.

"So…I just so hope that someone comes with an explanation in the next five minutes, as to why Yugito-Oneechan, the bastard, the brother of the bastard, and Shizuka are all in here…the last one should have already left I suppose…" that's when the door to his *room* opened, and Toruna walked in, sitting down to the side of Naruto.

"So, what's the problem?" Toruna muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Guess it, you're me. I suppose since you were awake, something happened?"

"Yep, Akatsuki tried to kidnap Yugito-Oneechan from the waterfall of truth area…which is both," as Toruna said that, Naruto interrupted him.

"Troublesome," a Nara sneezed, "and at the same time brings forth a lot of questions about," Toruna butted in once more.

"Spies, internal security, and problems, but that was covered by Itachi who, after you gave him that small snake during your last meeting, was contacted by Kuro, who gave him a deal. You know, since he spoke to you in Tsukuyomi, about the situation at hand, and the reason behind it, you did offer him a clear way out, in exchange for his service, had any of the Jinchuuriki been caught…thinking forward, it was the best damn decision ever," Toruna pointed that out, as Naruto sighed, nodding.

"Yeah, better to have one in than one out, and, having taught him Izanagi, he was more than willing to sacrifice one of his eyes in exchange for a chance at setting things right…and not dying from his disease," as Toruna took on a thoughtful look, he suddenly muttered.

"Maybe I shouldn't tell you this…"

"What is it?" Naruto muttered back.

"Saki-chan and Yugito-Oneechan have been both a bit jumpy since knowing that Itachi and *that boy* were here," he replied, "They said something about friendly spars, when everything was settled…so…it might actually be best to heal him fully," he added.

"Damn…why do I get all the girls like that?" Naruto whined, just as he heard a knock on the door.

"Well, I'll go get it," Toruna replied, as he slowly opened the door, and moved out of the way, since Saki seemed to have been eavesdropping, and simply launched herself inside, to tackle Naruto, who had barely gotten up, and fell once more on the bed.

"Ouch!" he muttered, as the woman in question snuggled her face against his chest-armor.

"Uncle!" she exclaimed, her eyes watery, "I was really, but really scared!" she whined, "You came back and fainted immediately, and Kuro-san wouldn't let me in, but he let Omega-san in! It just wasn't fair!" she made an adorable pout that made Naruto sigh, before gently tapping on the woman's purple hair, getting on a seated position in his bed, and then staring at the woman's eyes, light hazel, that seemed to be scanning his face, looking for signs of pain or harm.

"Well now, no need to pout. I think I need to dispel my clones once more and…"

"I'll assemble them once more," Toruna muttered, "it's not the end of the month, but it's better to be prepared, Itachi's news are something a bit worrying," he whispered barely, as he moved to rally the other clones.

"Obviously he couldn't disperse and give me the warning," Naruto's eyes rolled, as he hugged tightly once more Saki, before letting her go and standing up, only to find the woman hugging him by the side, her face really showing off waves of happiness for some strange reason.

"Uncle! Is it true I'm going to see Otou-san and Okaa-san soon!" she chirped, happily.

"Yes... I told you I always keep my promises: though tell me, everything's fine with the seal?" as he queried that, Saki nodded.

"Yep, no meanie voice in my head!" she giggled, "Can't wait to see them! But…" a small sad pout appeared on her face, "What if they don't recognize me?"

"Oh now… I'm sure they actually will," Naruto replied, ruffling her hair before moving to leave the room, Saki still clinging onto him.

"But…if they don't…and they don't want me…" she muttered, biting her lip, "can I stay with uncle?"

"Yes, Saki-chan, you can stay with uncle," Naruto replied, making a small smile to the woman, whose eyes sparkled for a moment, before still resuming their doubtful nature, to hide the nervousness from *soon to knowing her parents*.

It was only when he heard a familiar chuckle, that Naruto rolled his eyes, allowing another blond haired woman to come near and ruffle his own hair.

"Otouto!" Yugito exclaimed with a grin, "your niece," she stressed the word while barely repressing a chuckle, "told me just how much you liked training her, while she was here, and…well, she told you what she managed to achieve?"

"No, do tell me?" Naruto muttered, eying firstly his Oneechan, and then Saki, albeit…what was the feeling of dread he had begun sensing, that was crawling along his back.

"I managed to control my dark side! I began training with B-san on using the Kyuubi's chakra! Want to see!" she said, "Only lasts a couple of seconds though…it sucks I can't use it in battle yet," she added, with a whine.

"No, I don't want to see it," Naruto replied with a sigh of relief, earning himself more pouts from the purple-haired woman, "anyway, Yugito-Oneechan, seems you got kidnapped…again," as the man said that with a teasing grin, the woman growled slightly.

"It's not my fault they come at me! What is it with all S-rank missing Nin going all out with me, but just giving a fanatic scythe-wielding guy to B! I'm still surprised that you actually managed to save me…with Itachi, out of all the persons…" she looked around nervously, before whispering, "You know he murdered his entire clan?"

"He told me the story after I killed Danzo, truth be told the Uchiha planned a civil war, and Itachi was loyal to the leaf, so he put it down…but he didn't want to kill his brother, so he became a missing Nin, vowing that, if Danzo tried anything, he'd confess the real reason behind the Uchiha's massacre," at those words, Yugito's mouth dropped.

"So…that's why that raven-haired Emo guy is here too?" she queried, as they made their way in the central cave, where the clones were in formation, waiting for them, Hakuja staring at the scene with interest, while, instead, Kuro had a worried look on him, something was definitively amiss, at least for Yugito's sixth sense of Otouto protection.

"Yes, now, if you'll excuse me," with those words, Naruto moved, leaving Saki behind, to face the assembled forces of his clones.

"Let me guess…" he whispered, seeing how none of them actually dispersed, at his try, "Today's the day?"

"Well…yeah boss, sorry," was all that Zeta said, as a surprised and perplexed Yugito stared in shock, as a purple barrier rose to encircle the clones, and the original, within.

"Naruto! What's going on!" Yugito yelled, as she saw every clone take out a weapon of choice.

"The only way to remain sane after such a hefty usage of long term shadow clones, Nii-san," Kuro spoke politely, "was to utilize the quirks of the mind to one own advantage," he added, "basically, by developing split personalities, the shadow clones would last following said precept, and Senjutsu chakra worked particularly well in that regard…thus…eventually, it was time that from simple *different-me* the clones would become *Identities* of their own accord…and now they have to decide which is the real one," as he finished those words, Yugito stared as the clones moved all in at once, except one who was going through hand seals at an incredible speed, only to be cut off, and destroyed in a puff of smoke, by another clone with Kenjutsu and a katana.

Naruto ducked Alpha's first left punch, but before he could actually hit him back, the clone's knee rose to meet Naruto's leg, letting knee hit knee before the clone's right punch aimed straight at his face, only to have Naruto head-butt the clone out in a puff of smoke, before closing his eyes, fending off the extremely horrific Genjutsu, and flinging a kunai in the direction of Gamma, and just as the information came in, so too did Delta and Epsilon, aided by Omega wielding a syringe. Delta slammed a seal on the ground, and as it applied a repulsive motion, Naruto's eyes widened, just as he was about to forcefully impact against the barrier's shields, which meant death, since it wasn't the friendly barrier for training, but one of the same type that Orochimaru had used during his battle in Konoha, snakes sprouted from the man's forearms, anchoring themselves on the ground long enough for him to throw a punch at Epsilon, but before the man dispersed, he managed the feat of distracting him long enough for Omega's syringe to pierce his skin, and inject something in his veins, something that he clearly wasn't going to like anytime soon.

Delta dropped the chakra in the seal he had placed on the floor, before charging head-on with a chakra suppressing one, and getting a Ninjato in the chest, thrown by one of the snakes from Naruto's arm, while Omega was pierced by one of the man's anaconda on the back. Zeta decided to disperse, seeing no need in fighting, being a purely academic clone.

Toruna stood last, his katana raised, as Naruto slowly unsheathed his own. That's when the injection's effects took place, making his tongue raspy, and making his vision slowly go fuzzy.

"This…not venom," he muttered.

"Nope, you know it, since you destroyed Omega, new type of chakra-enhanced liquid, courtesy of fire element…it drains water…you know, actually, its usage is for battling Kisame," Toruna replied, as he charged in.

"And in a body…it drains of its water mass," Naruto replied gritting his teeth, as he charged at the remaining clone, flinging a Ninjato his way, while his Katana wobbled for a side attack.

"Yes, and trust me, in a few seconds, it will be like being in a desert for over a month," Toruna replied, his katana sparking against that of Naruto, electricity running through the sword, but stopping halfway, as wind chakra pumped the blade, and, before long, both swords clashed, the wind-chakra attacked the other sword, that had been purged of lightning-chakra in a second, to make room for wind-chakra, forcing thus the two into a battle of wind and swords, until the confrontation of strength, when the two blades clashed once more, made Naruto wobble on his legs, long enough for Toruna to push him backwards, and let his katana come down on the man, ready to slash him in the chest with ease. That's when snakes sprouted from the falling Naruto's forearm, aiming at the small window of unguarded time, and as their fangs bit onto the man's arm, Toruna disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Otouto, you mind?" After a couple of minutes of silence, Yugito's barely containing anger voice spoke, tapping slightly on the cave's floor.

"Minute," Naruto replied, his throat parched, his lips wrinkled, as he slowly encircled with chakra the small dose of the *poison* albeit poison it wasn't, and then expelled it from his mouth, puking it on the floor where, among the surprise of Saki and Yugito, the small puddle of crystal clear liquid began spontaneously burning, until it dissolved.

That's when the barrier flickered and disengaged, and Yugito, with ease, marched in with a flask, containing water, and handing it over to Naruto, who drank like it was his only anchor on the world of the living.

"Otouto, you know it's suicidal to keep doing this?" Yugito muttered, her eyes showing only a hint of worry, albeit she *did* want to headlock the man and make him bald for trying such a thing.

Saki instead was simply perplexed as to why Uncle fought himself, but letting a slight worry take over, she moved closer, holding a hand near her mouth, her eyes darting all over the man to look for wounds.

"It works, the headache is nothing, and I get the chance to make peace with myself," Naruto replied with a sigh, shaking his head as the information flow entered his mind, "instead of being *me* doing all this, it's different people, it helps a lot in surviving the information downpour," he added.

"So…what did you learn?" she queried.

"That I absolutely need to speak with Itachi," he muttered back, "and that idiot brother of his," he added, as he began walking towards their *cave-room*, "No following, either of you!" he exclaimed, waving them off, as Yugito had a tick-mark appear on her forehead, while Saki simply pouted something about *Uncle being unfair*.

Naruto's feet slowly walked him towards the *Uchiha's* quarters, where he politely knocked, force of habit, probably, before seeing the door open, revealing an Uchiha Itachi with a bandage over his left eye, and, behind him, obviously sulking, a Sasuke Uchiha who seemed to have an incredible frown on his face, and barely contained anger.

"Take it you told him everything?" Naruto queried, as Itachi nodded.

"That I did…Now I just have to convince him *not* to attack Konoha," he replied.

"You mind if I try speaking to him?" Naruto asked, and, as the elder of the Uchiha nodded once more, Naruto walked in, letting his neck slightly crack, as Sasuke just so slightly growled at his presence.

"Didn't hear that," Naruto replied, placing his right hand, in a cup-like form, to his right ear.

"What the fuck do you want?" Sasuke replied, "You already took out my cursed seal, my power, how am I going to destroy those damn bastards of Konoha?"

"You…You won't need to?" Naruto hinted.

"Bullshit! Danzo is dead, but what about his goons?" Sasuke replied, with a bigger scowl.

"Dead, killed them, or you think that I've suddenly got Root-grade equipment in the armory because I went shopping?" the blond-spiked man replied, with a cheesy grin.

"Still, the villagers…" Sasuke replied, only to be cut short by Naruto rolling his eyes.

"The villagers know nothing: the only one who knew would be the Hokage, Danzo, and Danzo's goons, since two are out, the only one remaining is the Hokage himself, namely, Minato Namikaze at the time. Want to kill him? Then we work together, since I've got to smash his head too, I say there are no problems on the matter," Naruto replied, as Sasuke, still holding his frown, muttered.

"But the villagers should know the truth!"

"They will, did I say they shouldn't?" as Naruto said that, Itachi was the one to cough slightly.

"That would ruin the Uchiha's clan honor…"

"That is composed of two persons, in this room, that were innocents at the time…I'm sure your past Uchiha would be dishonored…but you two? I doubt it…sure, he's a missing nin," pointing at Sasuke, "you instead were, actually, on a mission…especially after I send the S-team to forge and place some documents proving it into one of Danzo's safe-houses," as his gaze went to Itachi, the Uchiha's eye moved sideways, trying to think, probably, about the plan.

"With all said and done, ten minutes, and I'll get you back in top health, Itachi-san, I don't have another eye though…well, another sharingan that is," he replied.

"I do…" Itachi whispered, barely, as a crow wielding a sharingan in one of his eyes actually emerged from his shoulder, "It belonged to my friend…it's…"

"The same one that Danzo had, I know," Naruto replied, "Well then, let's get going, as for you," turning to Sasuke, "You *can* go around, just stay clear from the central cave, where the biggest snakes resides, and Kami help you if you smash a single egg, because, trust me, you don't want to get any snake in here mad," he added, "there is the Snake-Nins training ground a couple of rooms further down, want to hit a training post, try some Root equipment, or the like, feel free to do so," he then mulled over a thought, "but don't worry if some…snakes, ask you for a duel. They do that kind of thing a lot."

"Like I could lose to…" at those words, Sasuke decided, most valiantly, to bit his tongue and keep quiet, especially because his brother one-eyed stare was enough to make him revert back to his not-too-prideful form, that, and the recollection of what Naruto could do with his snakes.

"Said anything?" the man queried raising an eyebrow, as Sasuke shook his raven hair, earning thus a nod from the Snake Sage, before he turned to leave.

"Once again, ten minutes, and I'll have someone come take you to the operation area, I'll transplant the eye while doing the operation," as he finished speaking, he left the two brothers in there, before moving swiftly, creating a Kage Bunshin to go prepare the area, while he, himself, went to have a chat with his *prisoner*.

The prison area wasn't something so strange. Chakra suppressing seals were always a must in the cells, but to that, everything in the cell area was made with snakes, thus having a 24-hour a day guard system.

Sai had been given colored crayons and white papers, the reason that stuff was in there to begin with was Saki's exuberance that only seemed to quell when she had other things to do, primarily, coloring.

Sai had resisted, at first, the impulse, but since time, in a prison when you have nothing else to do but stay put, is relative, after a couple of minutes that had seemed hours to the boy, he had begun drawing, maintaining a neutral façade of indifference, but never the less coloring.

He stopped the moment he heard someone walking towards him, hiding the colored sheets under the blank ones, and swiftly putting the colored crayons back in their places, assuming a completely neutral façade.

"Well," the man spoke, from the other side of the jail, "how is it, Sai-kun?"

"Toruna-san," the ink-user muttered, "I no longer have the Root seal on my tongue…would that mean…"

"Yes, I have killed Danzo," Toruna replied, nodding, "And right now, I'm offering you a way out," he added, earning himself a puzzled look from the boy, only for a couple of split second, before the mask of a highly trained Root member came back on the black-haired boy.

"What is it you want, from me?" Sai replied, narrowing his eyes. He could probably keep his fake identity as *Sai*, and go back to Konoha, it was the only thing he had left, after all.

"Your allegiance," Toruna replied, "I'm sure you haven't recognized me…yet, but you do have doubts, don't you? After all you did take a rasengan in the guts, didn't you?" at the mention, Sai flinched, letting his right hand lower itself to his stomach, where he had been hit.

"It is you, then?" Sai queried.

"It is I, the one and only, Naruto," Toruna replied, with a smirk, and a wink, something that did make Sai slightly uncomfortable.

"Surviving against impossible odds…should have expected that from Monster-san," Sai replied, and just as he said that, Naruto smiled even more warmly.

"Oh…you just don't know what odds I'm going against, Sai…You just have no idea…"

*Kumogakure – Days later*

B was nervously walking around the village. Many would have said that it was utterly strange, that the Hachibi would be nervous, about anything in general. Truth was reports had come from the land of Frost, claiming how an army, sprouted from only Kami knew where, had been marching and destroying the land of Hot Springs, and was now heading towards Kumogakure at a pace so fast that, unless blocked, it would hit the village soon.

The bulk of the army of Kumogakure had moved to intercept the attackers on the various fronts, but since it was clear that their purpose was the Jinchuuriki, he had been forced to play baby-sitter to Saki and to Yugito too, since both had been brought straight into Kumogakure, and held there for safety reason. Three Jinchuuriki instead of one was a safety mean, but still, he couldn't feel, at all, calm, as he had this gut instinct that something, somewhere, was about to go horribly wrong.

Far away from Kumogakure, straight at the border between the land of frost and the land of lightning, stood the ravine, that was the only passage by land to get towards the rest of the region, the same ravine that had held the battle of the Third Raikage, where the man had fought for three days and three nights, to hold back more than ten thousands enemy shinobis.

Right there, in that small enclosed area of ground, Toruna of the snakes was waiting, seemingly alone, and staring straight in front of him.

_History is always bound to repeat itself._ He mused over the thought with a smirk, before shaking his head.

The wind blew softly upon the man's head, and for once, he didn't use a Genjutsu to alter his features, letting the sage chakra build up, without wasting it, as his eyes blazed that red hue and those black lines, as he slowly let his fingers move, as he took in a deep breath, he slowly touched the ground with his hand, letting the seal array flicker briefly, before coming to life. It shone brightly for but a second, and then, the ground shook once, like if an impulse had been sent underground.

The next moment, White Zetsus sprouted from the ground, like moles coming out, only looking a bit more shocked and stunned than normal, and, as some of them regained their footing, Naruto could see that all of them had seals, like those of the Hiraishin, on them.

It wasn't going to be pretty…at all.

His hand went to his katana, just as, in the middle of the now out in the open white Zetsu army, the Akatsuki members appeared, one after another.

Konan, already armed with paper shurikens, Kakuzu, his back already showing his masks, ready to detach themselves, Kisame, his Samehada already in full bloom, her mouth ravishing and foaming, Deidara, on top of clay spider, Minato Namikaze, wielding his three pronged kunai in his hand, and finally Tobi, or Uchiha Madara, as he called himself, but his face…his face wasn't that of Madara himself.

"You're an impostor, aren't you!" Naruto yelled, just as he ducked to the side, avoiding the sprouting of white Zetsus, and, as if on cue…

The battle began.

**Author's notes**

**Next chapter will be the finishing one. **

**I must warn that, since there has yet to be a reveal of who Tobi actually is, unless it magically pops out next chapter of Naruto, then I'll go with my idea of a some sort of Uchiha guy who was in love with Mito Uzumaki, but since she ended up being forced to marry Hashirama, he vowed revenge on the Senju clan till then. Words like "The moment people come to know love, they run the risk of carrying hate" gave me the idea, and it does seemingly fit the Kishimoto-verse, of a love-turned hate thing. It would also explain how he knew about Uzumaki and how to use the Rinnegan (to *give* it to Nagato) but not why he didn't use them from the beginning, and had to steal Nagato's eyes. Thus he probably was the son of an Uzu and an Uchiha, which *would* explain the space-time distortions he can seemingly use with ease as seal-workings.** **Still, this *is* my personal opinion on the matter, since I preferred to bar out every *normal* interpretation of the matter.**

**That said, on to the Q&A:**

**This is the nearly-last chapter. Next one, not caring how many K's of words I'll have to write, will be the last one concerning it all. Which means it might take a while, since, after the Pain battle, it seemed the only sensible thing to do for the Akatsuki to go all out, and then there will be the epilogue, and so on. **

**As you know full well, the white zetsu army attacked on more than one front, so, while Naruto is in the front, the other sides will be taken care of…*Dattebayo!***

**And yes. Naruto just flat-out did the same thing the Third Raikage did.**

**This chapter is the so called *calm before the storm*. **

**Yes, Motoi-san died, it's the reason they knew where the waterfall of truth was.**

**The Kyuubi is a bitch, and next chapter, you'll probably see why.**

**Saki's parents are still dead/ are back alive? You'll see. **

**That said, it's been a long run, and I'm feeling extremely satisfied, and…I love you guys! I love all the reviews you sent my way, all the analysis and the comments! Even the not liking the pairing! **


	28. SH: Ending

Twenty-eighth Chapter

Let it not be said, that life is easy. Life is never easy. There are always obstacles waiting to grab you and smash you against the wall. There are always enemies, lurking in the shadows, ready to strike you down. There are always unpredictable events that might, or might not, be a part of the whole.

Truth be told, had anyone told A that he'd end up adopting a boy that would turn out to be a replica of both a legendary Sannin and of his father, he'd have given a Lariat straight to the face of the clearly mad individual. Yet, he couldn't help but feel pride, seeing, from his position, how his son was fighting alone against an army, and several high rank level criminals. On the other hand, he was also extremely and utterly angered to the very brim of his little patience that someone could have been so damn stupid to actually go alone to face such an army.

"I have a plan," the Raikage muttered, gritting his teeth, "Trust me, Otou-san," he muttered again, just as electricity sparked all around him, "If this is his great plan, to fight them alone, then I swear I'm going to kill him myself, if he doesn't die there," he added, as next to him, Mabui stood silent, biting her lip. Should she tell the boss *what* the man had asked her to do? Or should she not? A hundred meters away from the barrier, and Naruto's *stand*, stood the Raikage, Mabui, Darui and nothing less than five-hundred Kumo shinobis, all the ones that could have actually covered the distance from the capital to that point. Now, on the other hand, they had to rest, and Naruto…Naruto *should* have been in the battle first, but helped by A and the others, letting the weakest ones to rest and then swapping places with them, before retreating, and repeating the process…instead, right there, he had ditched the others along the road, going so fast that not even the Raikage had been able to keep speed with him, and, afterwards, they had met a nice barrier preventing them from getting any closer to the fight.

"Raikage-sama…" the silver haired woman said, politely, "your son asked me to do something, should the battle turn clearly against his favor," she added.

"And that's the plan of his? What is it?" as the Raikage replied, turning around to stare hard at the woman in question, who, albeit being an experienced shinobi, was already planning to run away and avoid answering.

"He has prepared a stash of two thousands explosive notes…if he is about to lose…I am to directly send them inside the barrier," she muttered, thus explaining why she had a crate nearby, with the *danger* symbol on it.

The look on the Raikage's face was one of utter shock, and extreme and uncontrolled surprise.

"I don't know wherever I should admire him, for the balls he has as a shinobi, or snap his neck at the utter idiocy that his brain is for coming up with such suicidal contingency plans," the Raikage replied, shaking his head, while staring at the battle that was unfolding in front of him. He just hoped the other sides were holding.

"No, if the battle will be going badly, I want you to bring me in," A muttered, gritting his teeth, "my father could manage the feat, and so will I," he added, closing short any discussion or argument, "as I said before, I ain't letting my son get all the glory," he chuckled.

*Kumogakure Outskirts*

"Pops, It's a fine day, isn't it?" Yoru hissed, as he looked straight in front of him, before slightly tensing up.

"You felt the tremors in the ground too, didn't you?" the black snake hissed to Scaly-chan, who nodded, before slowly diving underground.

"Well pops, you can stop acting all that tense, you know!" Yoru hissed once more, as his father, slowly but surely, unwrapped his wings, keeping silent, however, as his blue eyes set themselves on the horizon.

"Yoru," he hissed, "You're a loudmouth, an imbecile, and an utterly idiotic son of mine," he added, "But I wouldn't change you for another son, no matter what. So…keep your position," and with that, even though the sheer size of Kuro could rival mountains, the flying snake dashed forward, leaving behind a small crater as the strength of the wind, generated by the snake's wings, carried him upwards, with such a speed that the next moment, he was already out of reach from an utterly puzzled fire snake.

"What was that about?" Yoru hissed, before narrowing his eyes, and yelling to the other snakes nearby, "Ready yourself Tail and Scale divisions! Let us show those fools who's got the strongest tails and the toughest scales!" he howled, as behind him, a veritable ocean of green and brown, mixed with some black, hissed back in reply.

The next moment, the ground shook, and an army of white Zetsu clone emerged from the ground, forced to do so, because underground they couldn't pass through the back of the giant stone-like snake that was also feeding on them, and thus they had to emerge…and they regretted it the very moment they did.

"Yoru's special: Flaming Wall!" as fire chakra from the giant snake appeared for a brief second in his mouth, like a fiery ball of pure flames, it slowly turned blue, to show the heat it actually had, and the next moment…the flames dashed forward, like a flamethrower, generating intense heat and a wall of flames that scorched and burned a considerable amount of foes.

For a second, the White Zetsu army stood still…but after that, the sheer amount of them charged through the fire, only to be met with a spectacle that would have made even the strongest of souls stop in shock. Snakes charged back just as the first of the white zetsu made it to the hill where Yoru stood, jumping forward and tearing holes through the enemy as, after being in midair, they bit their own tails, starting to roll downwards while their back, enhanced with wind chakra, guaranteed them the same sheer speed and cutting power of a thrown Chakram, actually making them both attackers and weapons.

The bodies that fell stumbled backwards, and as they began to roll the fire snakes spat out blobs of flames, that attached themselves to the falling bodies, making them literal rolling boulders of fire, since they were made out of wood, after all, or at least mostly out of it, fire was truly effective, as their cries littered the air, soon scales met nails, teeth met fangs, Kunais clashed and Ninjatos pierced, tails swiped the area and poison was spat.

The point they were charged on defending was the only possible way upwards, to reach another pass and finally be in Kumogakure. After them, as the last defense, in case some Zetsus managed to pull through, stood the Kumogakure shinobis that had been called back, meaning that, should the snake fall, since they could reverse summon in case of a defeat, they'd be the last line of defense.

The first one? The first one was obviously Naruto himself, the second was made of the shinobis close to the border, plus the Raikage, and they would either provide support to Naruto, or to them, depending on the circumstance.

Shiro-chan, flying, reached her uncle Yoru just as his giant tail smashed on the ground, sending a group of five Zetsus to meet their end by becoming a white pulp on the tip of it, and then receiving the hissed report, since hisses were fastest as a mean of communication then words, making the snake roll his eyes.

"THE IDIOT!" was the rant of black snake, "If he survives, I'm killing him myself!"

"Raikage-san is in line first, Uncle!" Shiro replied, before launching from her tail an explosive tag at an incoming wave, sending a couple to cinders and other to lose some limbs.

"Well, go and report it also backwards, let's see if there are others who'd think the same," as Yoru said that, Shiro flew as fast as she could, leaving behind her uncle to send another flame stream at more enemies.

*Naruto*

He dodged the upcoming punch from the white Zetsu, ducked while raising his right arm, pushing his legs backwards, to dull the blow of the left punch coming from a Hiraishin'd Minato from the Zetsu's seal, as he twirled in midair, avoiding the Raiton: Gian from Kakuzu's mask, his left forearm, imbued with Wind chakra, created a twirling current that scattered the paper shuriken thrown at him by Konan, while Deidara's launched forward spiders, tried to explode, once attached to him, but fell on the ground, like if they were duds, as electricity covered the man's body.

"HEY!" Deidara yelled, "Art is an explosion! What did you do!" Not stopping to answer, Naruto jumped out of the way of Tobi's space-time distortion whirlpool, moving closer to the Madara in question, and yelling.

"If you're really Madara, come on! Change the landscape! Fight and create a valley, you weakling!" as he taunted the man, he grinned, aiming straight at a group of white Zetsu, and jumping in the middle of them, to avoid the volley of Kunais that Minato sent his way.

Kisame charged, his Samehada swiping the white Zetsus away, in the hope of taking also the boy down, but not seeing him any longer.

"I'm here you dolphin!" Naruto taunted again, from behind Konan's back, "Hey Yellow flash, are you sure your name doesn't come from night leaks!" as he disappeared once more, his right fist connected with Deidara's face, who, albeit having his eyes both out in the open, hadn't seen him, and as he was thrown down on the ground, next to his spider, he spat out a trickle of blood.

"Art is an explosion, right?" Naruto exclaimed, locking a hand on Deidara's face, "THEN KATSU!" and as the blond spiked man was gone, so did the spider Deidara had been on, and that now was beside him, brighten up, earning a shocked expression from the blond man.

"HOW CAN…" as the explosion took way, Deidara barely felt himself being pushed backward by Minato, who, Hiraishin'd close to him, to save him from the explosion.

"Doton: Domu!" Kakuzu barely held true to his words, that a kick connected with his stomach, piercing straight through his abdomen, like if the earth armor didn't mean a thing, and instead, as just worsening the situation, as the missing-nin from Taki growled in annoyance, raising his fist to punch the man, Konan launched explosive tags, just as Naruto himself disappeared once more, letting the tags explode close to where Kakuzu was, but not harming him, differently from the kick, but still making him extremely irritated, as his wounds closed up through the use of the thread he was made of.

"No use of wide-range Jutsus, or you'd kill each other," as Naruto said that, Kisame's sword dashed on the back of the swordsman, to deflect the hit of a Katana imbued in electricity, and just like that, the man was gone once more.

"Samehada's ability is just troublesome, but to an extent," the man replied, reappearing as fast as he could once more to the right side of Kakuzu, but this time, a fist was ready to meet him, and only his quick nerve's reaction allowed him to deflect it, before yelling out loud.

"Raiton: Kangekiha!" just as electricity scoured through the body of Kakuzu, a rasengan embedded itself deeply into Naruto's back, sending him against the ground, in a small crater, before disappearing once more, albeit this time, clearly wounded. However Kakuzu noted, much to his dismay, that his earth armor was crumbling, as the electricity had seemingly disrupted the technique, and had travelled straight through his Jiongu, to pierce at his earth heart, meaning his Taijutsu armor had suddenly taken a drop, and forcing him to narrow his eyes and assume a far more defensive position. Being utterly pissed right in that moment was making it extremely hard, but he had to keep his cool, the man was a tough enemy, and it seemed to know *all* the weaknesses he could exploit, surely Itachi's work.

"You can't escape from me! This time, I'll blow you to smithereens and chop your corpse to pieces!" Minato yelled, as he smirked, in wait, for the moment to attack the man once more. Using the jutsu had slowed him down long enough to be attacked, even if he was in his lightning armor, he still needed some split second of time to channel the chakra, and that would be his downfall.

"I'd like to see you try, MONSTER!" Naruto yelled, as he reappeared above the group, his hands dashing through signs, the stupid idiot was now wide open for another attack! A thing Minato took with joy since, unknown to the boy, he had already tagged a Hiraishin seal on him when he had attacked him, at the beginning of the battle. That's why, when he appeared behind him, ready to pierce him, he got a surprise in seeing the man seemingly disappear from where he was, letting a doubt creep into him, just long enough to…

"HE KNOWS THE HIRAISHIN!" he yelled out loud, just as, reappearing behind Konan, having tagged her back, the man in question muttered a single final word.

"Chidori Eiso!" the spear of lightning dashed forward, piercing straight through the woman, and, not stopping, until it hit the ground, several more sprouting from it, grabbing as many Zetsus in it as possible, before unleashing the electricity tightly compressed, generating a static field of electricity that stunned, or outright killed the majority.

Konan, on the other hand, dispersed into paper sheets, being nothing more than a paper Bunshin. Just as she did that, the papers in question revealed themselves as explosive tags while behind him Minato appeared readying another rasengan. Just as the blue orb of chakra was about to hit the man's back, a small amount of current twitched the ex-fourth Hokage's hand, making him lose the momentum, and the aim, into Naruto's back, and actually slowing him down a moment, but that moment was all the man needed to reappear behind Tobi, who had stood still and unmoving for a while.

"There's so much electricity around here," Naruto pointed out, "that you should understand how it's going to be," he added.

"You could have become a great ally, and now I have to kill you," Tobi muttered, as using an inhumanly high speed, he jumped backwards, trying to pass through Naruto, while swiftly slashing his neck.

The only result was a kick straight in the back, and the man was forced forward with a loud yell of pain, as he nearly broke his spine, by his own accord!

"Yeah, and you're an idiot," Naruto replied, jumping backwards to avoid Samehada, as Kisame sneered at the man in question.

"Stop running and fight me!" Kisame's sword turned her teeth towards the blond man, letting out sharp screeches, just as Naruto, smirking, replied while giving an eye towards Kakuzu.

"Why would I? I'd rather fight the blue-haired chick, she's clearly stronger than you lot of pathetic baboons who can't do shit without wide range attacks…look at Kakuzu! He's so WEAK!" as he laughed that out, taunting the Takigakure missing-nin, the already thin patience of the man thinned even further, as Minato hurriedly tried to exclaim:

"Kakuzu wa…"

And in that moment, the green-eyed man yelled out:

"Fūton: Atsugai! Katon: Zukokku!" the next moment, a loud *shit* was pronounced by Kisame, who swiftly puked out an enormous amount of water, while Tobi managed, just in time, to transport himself to his pocket dimension, while Minato Hiraishin'd behind Konan, who had been hiding all the time next to the ravine's wall, but still in the barrier area.

The explosion rocked the area, forcing even the water around Kisame to evaporate, and his Samehada to actually suck in some of Kakuzu's chakra and fire, something the sword truly hated.

It was at that moment, that silence reigned for a couple of minutes in the area around them.

The barrier still held, meaning Naruto was still alive.

However, out of all of them…Tobi had yet to reappear, and so too Naruto.

*Tobi and Naruto*

Tobi had barely gotten safe from the explosion, in his personal space area that a kick on the back sent him on the ground, before he swiftly got back up, staring with wide eyes at the appearance of the boy…in HIS space.

"You showed it to me once…you should have suspected as much," Naruto pointed out, his hand finally moving to his sword, "engage me, whoever you are!" as his sword descended in front of him, the man snarled, "I AM TORUNA OF THE SNAKES! Best tracker of the land of Iron and your head will roll today!" as he dashed forward, an afterimage of a covered in iron samurai briefly floated on the man's back, mimicking his movements, and, for what Tobi thought being nothing more than a trick of the mind, he swiftly pulled out his own sword, clashing with his own Ninjato against the man's katana, his speed more than able to keep on par with him, his strength and skill second to none.

"How did you manage this?" Tobi hissed, his face frowning from the effort.

"Like I always did before! I watched and I learned it! Hachimon Kaimon!" Tobi's eyes showed the shock, as a purely Taijutsu ability, the opening of gate, suddenly forced him to break the strength conflict, and jump backwards, avoiding the slash, that still came, but not alone, "Shinkuken!" as the blade of wind dashed forward, slicing everything in its path, Tobi's eyes narrowed, and he took his chance, sidestepping the blade and closing the distance once more, before letting his Ninjato fly against the men, while his right hand aimed straight at the man's Katana's guard.

It was a moment, and the Katana suddenly shifted position, as the Ninjato pierced through Naruto's shoulder, but through that, it granted him the possibility to head-butt Tobi straight in the face, sending him backwards, his eyes locking into those of the man responsible for everything.

Then Naruto closed in once more, his left hand renouncing the two-handed posture to charge itself with electricity, while the wind chakra still kept on flowing into the blade, and, as the electricity touched the ground, it moved on its own, surrounding the man in a feeble static field, that his lightning armor both fed and was fed from.

"That thing again," Tobi narrowed his eyes, "You use static electricity together with your sage enhanced sensorial abilities, to pinpoint and know strength and direction of attacks, and you are using two affinities together not because of a Kekkai, but because your sword is actually held by your hand, but chakra is supplied by the snake in your sleeve," as he muttered that, Naruto smirked.

"Aces in the sleeves, I've got more than one, let's see if you're worthy of them all," as he taunted, once more, the man, Tobi's eyes narrowed, and suddenly, the idea of playing around made no sense at all, as he launched himself forward with unparalleled speed, he was surprised to see the man in question suddenly match up with his own one, as fists connected to one another, and the Katana was foregone, suddenly, Tobi decided he was done with it, and, extracting another Ninjato, used it to pierce the man straight in the chest.

What happened next surprised Tobi, as the man didn't duck, nor actually tried to avoid the blow, but instead redirected it to his shoulder, and in that moment, the fight started once more, with Naruto head-butting Tobi straight in the face, sending him backwards, his eyes locking into those of the man responsible for everything, then Naruto closed in once more, his left hand renouncing the two-handed posture to charge itself with electricity, while the wind chakra still kept on flowing into the Katana, once more in his hand, and, as the electricity touched the ground, it moved on its own, surrounding the man in a feeble static field, that his lightning armor both fed and was fed from.

"That thing again," Tobi narrowed his eyes, "You use static electricity together with your sage enhanced sensorial abilities, to pinpoint and know strength and direction of attacks, and you are using two affinities together not because of a Kekkai, but because your sword is actually held by your hand, but chakra is supplied by the snake in your sleeve," as he muttered that, Naruto smirked.

"Aces in the sleeves, I've got more than one, let's see if you're worthy of them all," as he taunted, once more, the man, Tobi's eyes narrowed, and suddenly, the idea of playing around made no sense at all, as he launched himself forward with unparalleled speed, he was surprised to see the man in question suddenly match up with his own one, as fists connected to one another, and the Katana was foregone, suddenly, Tobi decided he was done with it, and, extracting another Ninjato, used it to pierce the man straight in the chest.

At that moment, he realized it all sounded so familiar, actually, as he found himself yet once more in the same situation as before, only this time, he couldn't manage to duck the head-butt, yet he knew it was bound to happen, and he could have avoided it, but truth be told he couldn't.

Outside of the man's mind, Naruto's right eye slowly closed, a stream of blood running down it, and, biting his lower lip, he muttered.

"Well…you underestimated me. Why do people keep underestimating me? You should have summoned your statue, you know, *that* would have worked in dashing through, if I recall her strength, now I'll leave you here, the perfect spot for you: until you realize your wrongdoings, accepting that your reasons are wrong, you'll stay in here, in your very own dimension, trapped. I won't surely come to save you…see ya," and with those words, Naruto exited the area, leaving behind a very still Tobi, who, stuck in an endless loop, couldn't move.

*Within Tobi's mind*

"No, no, it can't be!" Tobi yelled, "Not even Izanagi works! I avoided eye contact! Was it that time, when he stared at me? No, there wasn't a Genjutsu cast right then!" as he said that, he once more was head-butted, thrown backwards, and once more he saw Toruna charge at him.

"WHAT IS THIS PLACE!" Tobi roared, but no matter what, he couldn't avoid the repetition. It always came to him, he always came to him, he always managed to attack him, and he always found himself back at the previous point.

"I can't be trapped forever," the head-butt, once more, "I need to leave!" He was being charged at, again, "I have to complete the plan! I want to control the world! Why can't I do it!"

"Aces in the sleeves, I've got more than one…" as Naruto spoke once more, Tobi yelled out loud.

"STOP IT! STOP!" he threw a jab at the man, but he didn't hit him, he on the other hand, managed to head-butt him once more.

"Why is this happening! WHY!"

_What did I do wrong? What happened? What's all this about? I need to find a way out, the statue! No, I sent it ahead with the White Zetsu army, but I think I might need to summon it here, I need her right now! I will control this world, and Konoha will burn, the Uchiha, the Senju, they will all burn for their betrayal and their thefts!_

As he tired that, it failed, as the head-butt came once more, making the man lose his patience as he simply lashed out, only to get, once more, head-butted.

"Why, just why damn you! FINE! I'll come out of this in my own way!" as he tried to disappear into another pocket-dimension, he was, once more, head-butted.

"I can't do anything but follow the pattern, it's cycling through it!" Tobi muttered, as he saw the charge coming towards him once more.

"But why? Why damn you, why! I just have to endure this, if it's like Tsukuyomi, it will just be three days at best…but why can't I dispel it with my sharingan!"

*Kuro*

Kuro wasn't a fool. The moment he, as the tallest snake, and thus the one with the best vision, had seen an enormous mass of wood and chakra march forward, probably at the head of the army, he had done the only thing he could do to lower the losses: he had charged up straight ahead, his head butting at a higher than sound speed against the statue, as his body wrapped itself around it, and then the battle among the two colossal beings began in earnest. At list, that was until the statue's strength actually showed off, after the brief initial moment of surprise, or distraction, or wait, whatever it was, and as Kuro found himself between the choice of being broken to splinters of snake-flesh, or unwrapping, he chose the latter, jumping away from the statue while flapping his wings to earn enough altitude to swirl around on himself repeatedly, before biting onto his own tongue, and coming crashing down, once more, like an embedded in wind-chakra Chakram, only to be actually parried by the statue, that was still pushed a couple of blocks worth away from the blast, before a tail sweep from Kuro sent it on the ground.

"I am Kuro, the slithering darkness of the night, the biter of the apocalypse: I am Kuro the wind snake!" as he roared that, his mouth unhinged, to yell out loud:

"Fūton: Renkūdan!" as massive wind balls clashed against the statue, it never the less stood back up, and, once the dust settled, it roared back at the snake, before unleashing strange chakra chains, that tried to wrap themselves against the black snake, who, however, pushed his wings downwards, flying out of reach.

"Those who have wings and fight on the ground are fools," Kuro hissed, as he slowly began a spiraling motion to condense the clouds around him, "a pity I don't have Naruto with me…well, beggars can't be choosers," as he muttered that, the statue's chains actually started moving upwards, and, as they moved through the really dark cloud that still *was* a condensed amount of electricity, thanks to being insulate from the rest, the result was a thunderbolt worth of shock straight down the chakra chain, towards the statue, who, however, fell down on her knees just to stand up a couple of seconds later, roaring.

"Damn that thing is annoying!" Kuro hissed, "I can't let her get to the village, damn her!"

It was at that moment, however, that the statue stopped.

"Huh?" Kuro stood very still, floating in wait, but the statue actually stopped moving. It was strange, but, as he slowly peeked with his head, he realized the statue had actually opened his mouth.

"Okay…that black sphere thingy isn't good at all," Kuro hissed slowly, as, his eyes bulging in shock, he flew straight out of the way of damn condensed Bijudama worthy of being called *the mother of all Bijudama* the result of the union of the Bijuus chakra of all the already captured demons. The cloud that the statue had hit, but even worst, the clouds all around the sky at the moment of the sphere's explosion, plus Kuro himself, were pushed aside by such a tremendous force that the sheer air pressure crumbled the trees on the ground, emptied the skies of clouds, and threw the giant snake to actually shatter a mountain's top, breaking in the process many of the snake's bones.

"GAH!" Kuro hissed, in pain, "That fucking hurt you damn fucking wooden splint of a fucking damn bastard of…" as a set of very loud swears echoed through the battlefield, Yoru actually sweat-dropped for a second, before spitting some more fire in the general direction of the Zetsu's, that didn't seem to dwindle at all.

"Father didn't de-summon…I think he might need some help, Tabako!" he hissed to the smoking rattlesnake, that was puffing smoke into a cloud, and then setting fire to said cloud with the tip of his cigar.

"Yeah!" he hissed back.

"I'm going to assist Pops! You take point!" as Yoru hissed that, the giant black snake slithered with the speed he could muster, hoping he'd manage to reach his father soon.

_I kind of hope Naruto is doing well…I'm going to kill him myself when he comes back! OH YES!_

It took but a couple of minutes, for Yoru to realize what his father had been doing, further away: keeping a giant statue out of the way. The battered form of his father stood on the nearby mountain, hissing and breathing, but raggedly, since after all, from what he could see, he had been beaten pretty badly, to the point of having been thrown straight against a mountain.

"I am Yoru," The black snake with red eyes hissed, "I am the trail blazer of the plains, the burner of Armageddon, Yoru, the fire snake! And nobody trashes my Pops and get away with it!" as the snake pounced forward, the statue raised her hands in defense, just as the snake in question actually took cue of his feint being a success, and swiftly moved to the side, where his mouth opened, as he roared.

"Hi no Maki!" as fire spat out of Yoru's mouth, Kuro stared at the sight with a small smile, one of pride, as the fiery flames of Yoru were a bright blue shade, the color of the hottest of flames possible, and as the veritable column of fire came to crash against the statue, the statue herself stopped on her tracks, trying desperately to turn the flames off.

"Can't let the youngster do all the work," Kuro hissed to himself, gritting his fangs at the pain his all body was in, as he slowly opened his wings, realizing, through a jolt of pain, that his right one had been neatly broken in more than one piece.

"Well…I'll slither over there," Kuro hissed to himself, as he slowly made his way down, wincing for all the wounds he had suffered.

As Yoru kept on spewing forward more and more flames, he suddenly felt a looming presence behind him, and, with a smirk, he managed to hiss.

"Pops!"

"The Combine Yoru…let's try it out…" Kuro hissed slowly, as his blue eyes nodded with a small sparkle of amusement to those, red, of Yoru, who grinned back, before the snake, as big as Manda had been, but not even as big as his father, stopped his attack to slither all the way up Kuro's neck, and have his head positioned right underneath that of his father.

The statue took the brief moment of respite to roar once more, but just as it was about to prepare another Bijudama, the two struck together.

"KuroYoru combine: Twin headed firestorm!" the flame, blue, nearly became a pale white, as enhanced by the wind chakra it became a thing of unbearable heat, that for the first time, sent the statue back, to crash and roll on the ground under the sheer amount of pressure the technique generated, cracking the wooden structure of the statue, as it roared the incomplete Bijudama, that exploded literally on the statue's face, sending it even deeper into a crater generate by the air pressure, but also forcing both Kuro and Yoru to stop their technique, as the air movement nearly made them move backwards from the backslash.

The two snakes stared with their eyes narrowed at the crater, before slowly opening their eyes in shock, as the statue itself cracked once more, and then, finally exploded in a deafening roar as spheres of condensed chakra dashed through the air, dispersing in the night sky.

"Did you count six of them?" Yoru hissed slowly.

"That I did…you think we actually free the captured Bijuus in the world?" Kuro whimpered back, thinking just about how to break the news, when everything was over.

"Well…when they're going to be reincarnated, we will know," Yoru replied with a nod.

"Yeah, we just freed all the tails from that thing, you know, one tail, three tails, four tails, five tails, six tails, seven tails…that makes what, twenty-six tails of power out?" Kuro replied, as Yoru, whistling slowly slithered down his father's neck.

"Well Pops, sometime one has to do what one has to do," as he replied that, one of those energy globes fell down straight in front of them.

At that, both winced.

"Oh shit."

"I AM FREE!" Shukaku yelled with glee, "FREE! Free! Let me say I'm free to kill, free to maim, free to…" he then narrowed his eyes, staring at the two snakes in front of him, one his size, another smaller than him.

"My first kills!"

Just as the Ichibi gleefully yelled that, a giant frog, well, toad, jumped straight on top of his back, wielding a sword that however clashed futilely against the Ichibi's sand shield, and forcing the toad, called Gamabunta, to take a more defensive position, while, on top of him, stood both the Toad Sage, Jiraiya, and a red-haired woman in a Jounin-sensei battle armor.

At the sight of the red-haired woman, the Ichibi's eyes widened in shock, before the beast began recoiling, screaming like a whimpering child.

"NO CHAINS NO NO BAD CHAINS NO! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! NOOOOOOOO!" As Kuro and Yoru, sweat-dropped, the Ichibi actually placed both his paws above his head, and trembled while staying as low as possible, even sobbing.

Kushina, on top of Gamabunta, chuckled nervously, scratching the back of her head, while staring at the two snakes and waving at them, just as Gamabunta still kept his sword tightly in his hand, his eyes narrowing. He wasn't going to trust snakes just yet…even though they *did* send him over Manda's skin, as a sign of peace.

He had a good snake-skin wallet now, and he wasn't going to bitch about two snakes being the summons of one who could have been the perfect Toad sage…at least lest perverted then the current one.

As Jiraiya, on top of Gamabunta's head, sneezed, he waved too at Yoru and Kuro, before yelling out loud.

"We headed here as soon as we could! Thanks for contacting Katsumi-chan!"

"We didn't," Kuro replied, perplexed, turning to stare at Yoru, "Did you…" but as his son shook his head too, both snakes raised puzzled eyelids.

"Well…if you didn't, then who did?" Jiraiya queried, perplexed.

*Kumogakure*

Saki was biting onto a leather piece, gnawing it to avoid biting at her nails, or hands, from the stress. Her uncle was out there, fighting, everyone else was out there, fighting, and she was in the village, being protected, while also Yugito-Auntie was doing the same as her, at least, she gnawed leather while tearing apart cushions, instead B-Uncle was simply rapping at the Karaoke machine.

She, on the other hand, tried once more to go to the bathroom, and then, carefully tried to slid open the window in it, but before she could even make a single step outside, a cough from above made her wince, and pout, as C-san stood there, his eyes narrowing, and, with a quick hand gesture, hushed her back inside.

"No fun!" she whined, going back to the living room, "Why can't we go help uncle?" she added.

"The bro's got it tough,

Protecting us is rough,

I'll keep an eye out for trouble,

And then I'll have him pay double," B rapped, thus earning himself a not-so-high score in the Karaoke's song.

"Stupid Otouto, really stupid Otouto," Yugito muttered, gritting her teeth, "Otou-san they're after the Jinchuuriki, protect them by keeping them in the village, while I go off with you towards a really suicidal mission to stop Uchiha Madara himself," she said, mimicking the man's voice, "I'll probably do a really cool stand-off and die like a martyr, but hey, everything is going to be fine, right!"

"Uncle is really strong…and who is Uchiha Madara?" Saki queried, perplexed.

"Oh, only the strongest of Shinobis ever existed, second only to the first Hokage, who, by the way, isn't around to help my Otouto survive his wrath and that of more than one dangerous S-rank enemy shinobi," Yugito replied, only to realize what she had just said to a mentally three years old girl.

"This doesn't mean he…" but she was interrupted by Saki actually widening her eyes in shock, and yelling:

"UNCLE NEEDS HELP!" before dashing out through the door with inhuman speed, in her already one-tail cloaked state, or at least, trying to, but one of the Hachibi's tentacle stopped her, by, however, trashing the kitchen up.

"Saki-chan! Stop it!" Yugito yelled, grabbing the wailing purple-haired woman by the ear, as the woman reverted back to her normal form.

"But…But…Uncle is fighting someone really strong! He needs help!"

"The Raikage is with him, as are more than a hundred shinobi and…"

"Shiro-chan, coming through with news!" the white flying snake flew in the kitchen, while saying out loud, without looking at her surroundings, "Naruto-san went to fight the Akatsuki alone, closing himself and them in a barrier! The Raikage is pretty pissed, and asks that none of you do anything like going to the battlefield, it's an…" soon, the kitchen was empty.

Shiro-chan blinked, for a moment, then slowly sneaked to the fridge, ignoring the cries of *Stop! That's going against orders!* and *Please Nii-san calm down!* or *Somebody call a medic!* while getting herself some milk and some cookies.

She had done such a great job everyone was surely going to be proud of her!

By the time the three Jinchuuriki reached the gates, however, they stopped on their tracks. Standing there, right next to the Toad Sage, was the red-haired whore, at least, for Yugito, who narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Slightly letting her nails elongate at the scene of her speaking politely with C, who was actually frowning, before nodding and turning around to point at the three. Probably he had sensed them, obviously, and had moved to intercept them there.

"What is she doing here!" Yugito was the first to snap, pointing at the red-haired woman, with a truly angry face.

"Seems she and Jiraiya-san were called here by Katsumi's relying them a message of a need for assistance from Kumogakure," C replied, "But I have no way to verify it, so I don't honestly know what to do," he added.

"Well, where's the kid? He's the one who could have sent the message, but both Kuro and Yoru said nothing on that," Jiraiya replied, "And I can't have Gamabunta wait, he's getting edgy," as he pointed that out, the giant Toad outside the gates was actually enjoying the view of the place…but wasn't too keen on saying anything about it, he was playing shogi after all with Kuro, who was being bandaged by an overly fussy blue-scaled snake that was so extremely tiny, compared to him, that it was even funny to watch, especially how it fussed and cried at every wound, making Kuro roll his eyes more than once.

"Well, the brat has decided to be an idiot!" Yugito snapped, "He's gone martyr, I tell you! We have to hurry to his side and…"

"Where's Saki-chan?" B queried, looking for a brief moment around, and not seeing the woman in question.

"Wait…she can't have," as C increased his sensor area, he groaned, "She did. She's out of range already, how'd you get here so fast?" the medic-nin queried Jiraiya, who grinned.

"Gamabunta can jump really high and far…somebody needs a lift?"

*Naruto*

Minato was tense, as he awaited the spiral that would mark the return of Tobi, maybe with an unconscious Naruto. What he didn't expect was Naruto himself emerging, both of his eyes open, but one of them was now missing a black line on the bottom of the slit.

"Missed me?" was all the blond man could taunt, as Minato reappeared on the man's back, letting his Kunai fall forward in an attempt to slash his back. The only result was Naruto dispersing into smoke, before the fourth Hokage felt a punch connect to his jaw, sending him nearly against the barrier wall, and forcing him to plant his hands on the ground to avoid getting badly wounded by the shield's defenses.

There was no longer a *pass* around them, but a squared area of at least a good mile, the limits of the barrier, and, as Minato gritted his teeth, narrowing his cold blue eyes, Kakuzu charged forward, aiming to pummel the brat to the ground.

While the Takigakure Ninja tried that, Konan's paper shurikens darted once more, this time fizzling, as they had been made out of explosive tags, exploding in mid-air and thus obscuring Kakuzu's charge, just as Kisame, moving from the back, flung Samehada towards him.

The first second, all three of them thought with glee just how the shocked and soon to be dead Naruto was going to be hurt by this combined three-way attack. The next moment, Samehada's attack was deflected by a chakra chain, while Kakuzu's fist was blocked by a wall of chains that simply enclosed in a dome both Naruto and Kisame.

"As Samehada sucks chakra, tell me, do you have any Sage training?" Naruto queried, as the chain that was wrapped around the sword in question dispersed, resulting in the two enclosed within the dome of chains, while Naruto's hand assumed a defensive position, Kisame's eyes narrowed.

"Don't fuck with me. I can feel the chakra coming out of my body. Too bad for you, because I'm known as the tailless Bijuu, for all the chakra I possess, you're barely dipping me! And now…you're going to DROWN! Suiton: Dai Bakusui Shōha!" as water emerged from the man's mouth, filling in the dome of chains, Kisame grinned, before trying to merge with Samehada. Trying to, because he suddenly felt the deep need *not* to, as the sword refused the contact, feeling…Sick?

"What did you do!" Kisame's eyes blazed with fury, Samehada could eat any amount of chakra, without any problem!

The man stood still, using the chains sprouting from his back to remain calmly with his feet on the ground, albeit the water, all around him, was violently gushing around.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, he *did* give much of a hint, didn't he? His Lightning release armor was still holding on, sending shocks all around the water, but strangely, or maybe obviously, since it was coated in chakra, it wasn't spreading around as fast as he wanted to. He could drop it, but he was sure that, in doing so, he'd warrant a quick and painful death the moment he'd defeat Kisame, as it would send Minato at his back too fast for him to dodge.

Outside, Deidara was preparing a giant plaster, muttering curses about art stealers, and about how his art was the real true one, while Konan was keeping her gaze fixed on the dome, waiting for the outcome of the match, as, she realized, the chakra chains were slowly obscuring the inner visual with some sort of…fog?

Being in the center of the dome, surrounded by the water, Kisame's eyes were all fixed on Naruto, he had to get near the man, while keeping careful attention for any loose chains and tricks the man had.

"Suiton: Goshokuzame!" _Let's see how he fares against my long range attacks, then! _As five chakra sharks emerged from the hand of Kisame, darting forward towards Naruto, the man didn't as much as flinch, instead letting the chains wrap around his body too, in a sort of Cocoon like phase, as the attack simply hit and dispersed, without seemingly doing damage.

Truth be told, Naruto's muscle were imploring mercy, but the man wasn't going to show any weakness, right then, it would prove fatal.

He just had to wait, making sure that Kisame would keep being cautious, just a bit more…just a few more minutes.

"What is he playing at?" Kisame muttered, staring at how the man didn't seem to move at all. He turned his gaze around, and, at that moment, the chains actually pursued to attack the individual in question.

"You've got no gills, yet you plan to ensnare me in the water? Are you finally cracking under the pressure?" as Naruto simply smiled, he waved with his hand in the water towards Kisame, who, puzzled, realized by dodging that he felt his back growing…warmer? He turned around, to be met with utterly caustic vapors that sapped through the water like they were feeding on it, not only drying it, but passing through the man's fins and entering his lungs, effectively making it far worse than it was meant to be. The great swordsman of the mist, Kisame, felt like a fish out of the water…while being IN the water.

His hands reached his own throat, in gasps of lack of air, or maybe, excess of scorching air, and, finally, as his eyes began rolling backwards, Samehada cried at the sight of the chains piercing through the man's chest, turning the water crimson with blood.

On the outside, the fog that had been on the surrounding of the dome turned reddish in color, before the chains actually dispersed, releasing a wave of seemingly hot air and water around, followed by the dead and filled with gaping holes body of Kisame, who was, strangely, being covered by a weeping Samehada.

Naruto stood in the middle of it, his mouth closed tightly, as his eyes narrowed long enough to realize that he had been surrounded by clay, explosive clay, coming straight from Deidara.

"THIS IS REAL ART! KATSU!" the explosion soared throughout the area, effectively at point blank destroying even more than before, and, as the dust settled in, the Akatsuki remaining members peeked from behind of Konan's paper barrier, seeing the battlefield completely devoid even of rocks, and only the pale purple hue of the barrier remaining.

It was at that moment, that the swirling movement of a rasengan, coupled with the sheer cries of a chidori, embedded itself deeply into Deidara's back, making him yell in pain, as the electricity of the chidori and the spinning motion of the rasengan literally tore his spine from his back, breaking him in a gory mess of blood and spilled organs, as he flew to impact harshly against one side of the barrier, dissolving into purplish flames.

The attack had come from behind Konan and Minato, who, turning around, realized that a slightly sweating Toruna stood there, his eyes narrowed while staring at the two, perplexed as Kakuzu seemed nowhere near.

It was only a moment, as when Kakuzu's arms emerged from Konan's paper barrier, they swiftly tried, where tried being the key term, to snap Naruto's neck, only to fail when the man swiftly avoided the blow, returning a counterstrike that pierced straight through Kakuzu's Fire mask, before letting the electricity in his palm increase tenfold.

"Naruto style: Chidori Execution!" as the hand released spear-like electricity all around the man's body, it smashed through the internal organs, tearing apart the very insides of the Takigakure ninja, and, as he fell on the ground, Konan's entire body transformed into paper, taking advantage of Naruto's brief moment of standing still to enwrap herself around him, letting the fizzles of the explosive notes she had permeated herself with start to fly.

"We will see each other in HELL!" The woman yelled, as more than ten thousand's worth of explosive notes exploded, giving just enough time for Minato to Hiraishin far from the center of it, closer to the corpse of a white Zetsu that still held his symbol on.

The explosion went off without a hitch.

Outside the barrier, the dwindling barrier that suddenly shut off, Mabui had taken too much time in deciding wherever to obey Naruto's orders or the Raikage's, resulting in the explosion going off, the Raikage promising murder, and the silver-haired Kumo ninja to stare in shock at the sight of the charred body of the man falling on the ground, tough enough not to be pulverized, but not tough enough to survive that. It was but a brief instant, an instant of hope that was soon destroyed, as the barrier, finally, stopped its work.

Naruto was dead.

That was what the barrier symbolized, that, or the man had decided to stop channeling chakra into it, which would have meant pretty much the same thing. The Raikage had already charged forward, with surprising speed, followed by the ninjas behind him, as the battle had lasted far more than a couple of hours, as the sun was slightly on the way of setting. However, they were met with a veritable mass of white Zetsu, a real living wall of white flesh that impeded their movement, giving the Ex-Fourth Hokage time, to think and to plan.

Minato grinned, his speed had saved him till the very end, and with no-one from the Akatsuki around at the moment, except Zetsu, who was weak, he was going to get out of there, grab Kushina and Katsumi, and have them come to term with him being right, and that, that thing over there, dead and charred, being a monster.

He chuckled to himself, as he was ready to leave, but then, a thought came into his mind.

_What if he's still alive?_

He could come back later, and then kill him, right?

_His growth is exponential. He handled nearly all of us, and those caught in the barrier, I need to stop him from getting stronger._

The white Zetsus on the other side of the pass had already dashed forward, keen on terminating their work, while one simply commented, moving closer to Minato.

"Where is Madara?" Minato shrugged, at the question.

"That monster over there did something to him, when he disappeared in his pocket dimension of sorts," the blond man replied, his blue gaze setting on the charred corpse.

"And you couldn't ask him what it was about?" The Zetsu replied.

"Did you see the shit he pulled at us? He was a damn monster, that's what he was! He took us by our weak points, he knew our weaknesses, and Kami be damned I had trouble keeping up with his speed! You think he'd just talk about what he did!" Minato snapped back, as he charged an Odama Rasengan in his right hand, "And now, I'll be sure to blow him to smithereens," as the blond man moved forward, rasengan ready, he stopped, for a brief moment, before yelling out loud.

"Today the monster dies! Watch as he…" and the next second, a veritable bullet of white chakra pounced at Minato Namikaze, sending him to fly and crash against the ground, repeatedly bouncing and breaking bones, while smashing his internal organs to a bloody pulp.

There, standing right next to Naruto, panting just so slightly stood a white flaming Saki, with strange black lines around her body, her seal clearly visible in contrast with everything else she had on that had the same fiery hue. It was just a few seconds, and then it dispersed, leaving the purple haired woman to sweat heavily, as her legs wobbled from the stress, but she didn't get down, instead grabbing a Kunai tightly with both her hands, she assumed a defensive posture near Naruto.

"Uncle… Open your eyes uncle," Saki whispered, "I know you are alive, uncle," she added, in a murmur.

"I seriously doubt that," some Zetsus near them replied, as the one with the black half emerged, "I'll have to deal with you in person, to…"

"Chidori Eisō!" this time, however, it wasn't from Naruto that came the Ninjutsu so fabled for being an assassination technique, no, the attack had been brought down by a raven haired boy, whose tomoes spin wildly at the sight of the black and white Zetsu being destroyed.

"Good, with him dead there should soon be no more," Sasuke muttered, as he had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, in the middle of a group of white Zetsus, blasting them to cinders with his Katana, enhanced with lightning release.

"Hey! Help me with uncle please!" Saki exclaimed, getting on her knees near Naruto, to try and search for…what was it the first-aid lesson? Heartbeat? It wasn't beating the heart! What was it that she had to do? Why wasn't uncle breathing?

"Why would I?" Sasuke replied with a smirk, as his Chidori plainly and simply carved its way in Saki's side, throwing the woman to the ground, screaming with pain from the blood coming out.

"I think I took your spleen, seeing all that blood," Sasuke grinned madly, "but once I take the Kyuubi, Konoha will burn, and nobody will be able to stop me, not now that *this*," kicking at Toruna's body, "is dead."

Saki's eyes widened in shock, and fear, as she held her side, the Kyuubi's chakra slowly closing it, but still the pain was a lot higher than normal, and she couldn't quite feel her side, and, mostly, she was scared. She was scared because her uncle wasn't moving.

She knew what it meant when someone wasn't moving.

Uncle had told her about her parents, she had known what it meant to be dead then.

She had cried, and uncle had consoled her.

Uncle had told her how he could bring her parents back, and that he just needed some time, and he had promised that.

He had promised that, and now he was no longer there.

He couldn't keep his promise after all…

"Liar…" Saki muttered, tears running down her cheeks, "Uncle! Wake up! You Liar! You promised me! UNCLE, WAKE UP!"

"He's dead! And you will soon join him while *I* take the Kyuubi, and then, not even Itachi will stop me from my revenge!" as Sasuke's katana charged itself with electricity, and the boy's speed increased as he dashed towards the purple haired woman, his sword aiming to pierce the girl's arms, since, after all, she could go without and be easier to transport, his Katana met an obstacle: Chakra chains, to be more precise.

Saki muttered meekly, before fainting from the lack of blood, a small smile on her lips.

"Uncle…?"

Truth be told, it wasn't Naruto, but a red-haired woman, who had barely arrived on the battlefield and had shown enough speed to actively manage to block the sword with her chains, while holding them tightly even with her hands, as mere mind control wasn't sufficing.

Kushina Uzumaki jumped down from Gamabunta's back, just as Jiraiya entered the battle fray to aid the Raikage, who was weeping *sweat* from his eyes, while battling some of the remaining forces.

Kushina's chains pushed the Uchiha backwards, but not enough to prevent him from aiming another Chidori Lance, straight at the red-haired woman. The lance passed through Kushina's shoulder, but as the wound closed up, the woman smirked before entrapping the Uchiha in her chains, forcefully sucking out the chakra from him.

"Nice try, but you fail," Sasuke muttered, having put Kushina herself under a Genjutsu, to aim a slash at her back. Only to be surprised when the chains actually did sprout from the woman's back, to force him to parry the blow or get pierced by them.

"I've got far more experience than you, Sasuke-kun," Kushina muttered back, "Don't think I'm called the red hot habanero because I'm weak," as she finished speaking, a Tanto appeared from her right sleeve, just as the chains swiped the area where Sasuke had been forced to dodge.

"But it's impossible! My sharingan's Genjutsu should…"

"I sparred friends with your mother, Sasuke-kun…you don't think I never sparred once with other Uchihas?" at that rhetoric question, brought with a smirk, Kushina's chains erupted from the ground that Sasuke had leapt on, resulting in him being wounded on the feet, and forcing him on the knees where he was completely wrapped up by the chakra chains.

"Now you'll have to stop this nonsense, and explain *why* you tried to kill Saki-chan," as the red-haired woman moved closer to the boy, wrapped in chains since she was removing his chakra, Saki ran, holding her side that had just then stopped bleeding, towards where Naruto's body was, as she sniffed, twice, she began to pounce on the man's chest, repeatedly, earning herself a sorrowful look from Kushina, who just then took the moment to let some emotion display on her face.

Maybe it was because she no longer held the Yin chakra of the Kyuubi within her, but she just then realized how the sorrow was something bearable, now. To her, both when sane and when mad, he had died so many times it was no longer a surprise, or a worry, it was more likely…expected.

What she saw, however, made her eyes bulge in shock, as Minato, holding his usual three pronged Kunai, had dashed forward, where minutes before he had been a mumbled mess of broken bones, and was now holding at Kunai-point Saki.

The so familiar pattern of the Yin release seal on him was something strange, maybe even a bit crude, but it did seem to work.

"I have to thank Kabuto, for this," Minato muttered, "to think he'd go this far just for a chance at revenge, well, I delivered, didn't I?" the man chuckled, "Now, Kyuubi-chan, why don't you step away from the monster here, and convince my wife to come with me, or you die?" as he said that in a mocking tone, Kushina's eyes narrowed with ill-contained anger, and sorrow.

"Minato…think about Katsumi, think about what you're doing…" The battle with the white zetsus was about to be finished, all she had to do was take some time, it wouldn't take much more: without the Original one the others were slowly deteriorating into simple mindless berserkers, "think about what you did...you can't tell me you're justifying everything!"

Minato's eyes narrowed, before he held Saki with his left hand in a chokehold, his right hand with the kunai directly next to the woman's skull.

"I don't care about Bijuus anymore, so why don't you come with me, take Katsumi-chan, and then we'll solve everything, together, like a happy family…step away from the monster NOW!" as Minato pulled Saki's throat once more, pulling her away, as the woman was crying, sobbing *Uncle* between her cries, something fell behind the man's back.

Spinning around, the ex-fourth Hokage saw the placed upon a pike head of Kabuto, a trickle of blood coming down from his mouth, as, in that precise moment, his head was severed from his shoulders.

The combat knife, the very first combat knife ever gifted to him, charged with wind chakra, slashed through the monster's neck, severing the muscles, cutting neatly the bones, and decapitating the man in one fell swoop. Kushina stood silent with her mouth barely gaping at the sight of the back of the man in question: black and white was the mantle, as his hair, dirt-blond with red stains, was none other than that of Naruto. He had just killed his father in cold blood, appearing behind him with a flash of speed, and taking the moment of distraction from Kabuto's head on a pike to tear through the man's neck. Kushina didn't know wherever to be sad, or not. The memories of everything that the man had done, had ordered, had forced, the tales that had been spun…was she such a bad woman, not to be shedding tears for the death of the person she had vowed to love in sickness and in health, on the altar? Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't, but right then, she just felt…relief, in seeing her son alive.

Then the body, without a head, fell on the ground, while holding the bloodied combat knife stood none other than Naruto himself, panting and extremely pale, and with a grin on his face.

"Anyone missed me?" at the question, Saki simply dried her tears off, and queried, facing her uncle.

"Are you alright uncle?" as the man nodded, Saki simply moved really close to him, and then, with a simply, yet extremely strong movement, slapped him on the cheek, her eyes still red and her cheeks puffed up in a pout.

"Ouch," was all that Naruto said, as the purple-haired woman simply hugged him afterwards, in silence. Real ninjas don't cry after all.

"Where were you?" Kushina queried, as she noticed the man slightly tense, before replying, in a hushed breath.

"Taking care of the second problem, before it became bigger...Kabuto tried finding out where Orochimaru had ended up going, and as he knew of Ryuchi cave, that's where he went. We then ambushed him and interrogated him, that's why I was sure I could pull this off…I knew that he had used some of his own brewed snakes to contact Katsumi, and have her send you a fake message from me. His real purpose was to have you easily captured by Minato, together with Katsumi, by using some cursed-seal persons," as he pointed that out, he affectionately ruffled Saki's hair, breaking off the hug as he turned to stare at the bundle of chains, while Kushina's eyes bulged in fear over her daughter's fate.

"I was on the lookout, however, that's why I'm thankful she kept the snake-nin armor on, so I transported myself there when she was under attack, and it also came right in time with the…surprise of the woman. That was luck, I tell you," saying that, he then added, "she's fine, in Konoha, and safe," earning a sigh of relief from the red-haired woman, "but I didn't expect someone to betray his word, nor to try this little stunt here and now," as his voice turned icy cold, he stared at something behind Kushina's back, where a chakra-depleted Sasuke had barely enough strength to try, try being the word, to stand up.

"I gave you a deal, and you broke it," Naruto muttered, moving closer, as Kushina herself stood up, in between the two.

"Naruto, please…he's a Konoha missing Nin, he should be…" her words died in her mouth, as the man's gaze wasn't a pleasant one at all.

The next moment, she realized that nothing she was going to say would work, he didn't have anything good on her, and she had nothing to grab in her plead.

_Mikoto I'm sorry, but I can't help him…he did something wrong…and now I'm afraid he's going to pay the price._

As she slowly moved to the side, Naruto's already bloodied combat knife came down, straight between Sasuke's eyes, splitting his skull in one fell swoop, and letting electricity, this time, carry itself all over the boy's body, making it convulse as, having deliberately avoided a lethal point, aiming at the nasal sect, the Uchiha suffered horribly in his remaining moments, until his own teeth bit off his tongue from the spasms, and blood gushed forward together with foam from his mouth.

The brutal method of death was soon over, moments later, and Naruto stood back up, swiping off the dirt and the blood from his knife.

"Good thing Itachi's headed towards Konoha, with proof of his innocence…and a plead to spare this bastard's life…well…this is over, I suppose," with a loud heartfelt sigh, Naruto finally fell backwards, letting the chakra exhaustion claim him once more, bundled together with a pair of shredded muscles from the first gate's opening, as Saki swiftly sustained her Uncle with her strength, holding him by draping one of his arms around her shoulders, to hold him upwards.

*Tobi*

"I've been a good boy mom," another head-butt, "why are you hitting on me?" another clash, "what did I do wrong!" once more, repeat.

The face of the man in question was no longer that of Uchiha Madara, what use was there in keeping it up, when there was no-one but that man with him?

"I want to get out of here, Kaa-san," he added, as another head-butt took him, "I don't want this. I want Mito-chan and I to go on a picnic," he muttered, plunging once more the Ninjato in the man's shoulder.

"But that Senju bastard is there, and Mito-chan is laughing with him," he replied, "he's going to become the first Hokage, the Uchiha and the Senju are going to be friends, so father says I shouldn't meddle with Mito-chan anymore," as he gritted his teeth, he once more felt the head-butt.

"Why shouldn't I? I'm going to become stronger than him! You'll see!" he added, but once more, the clash, why wasn't he winning? Why wasn't it all over? How many days had it been? Or was it hours?

"I'm going to make everyone understand I'm the best, Otou-san! I'm going to make everyone believe in me!" he exclaimed, feeling the head-butt, once more, coming against his forehead.

"I'll master the sharingan, I'll be the strongest, I'll kill that bastard who stole my Mito-chan away!" he snarled.

"No Otou-san, it's not treason if it's for love, you told me…" he pleaded, as once more, the clash came.

"Come on Hashirama! Is this the best you can do! Being wounded in battle should mean nothing for you, shouldn't it! Give your title to who you fucking want, I want my Mito-chan!" again, the Ninjato in the shoulder.

"Mito-chan, he's dead, the man who put the Kyuubi in you is dead, and…why are you crying Mito-chan?" he worriedly said, as another head-butt came his way.

"No, no, you didn't love him, you loved me, you loved ME!" he screeched.

"He brainwashed you, yes, but I'll be back! I'll take the Kyuubi away, it's messing with you Mito-chan, I know he his, she? It's a she? She's messing with you! I'll be back, I'll find a way and I'll save you!" he had a hopeful tone, too.

"What is this, Mito-chan? An ambush? For me? But I'm stronger than them, why are you doing this to me? It's the Kyuubi, isn't it? Traitor of Konoha? But I'm not for the village, I just want you…no, it hurts, stop saying those things!" he snarled, the clash, once more.

"Why won't you understand? Why can't the world understand me? Why are my words not carrying through? To who am I a disgrace, Otou-san! TO WHO!" he yelled, no longer caring if the clash was going to take a piece of his body, he could withstand the pain.

"I know what I have to do…I know the power of the Juubi can make you all understand, I need ten tails to defeat nine, you don't know who the Juubi is? Pity for you, my eyes can see: my eyes can see everything! I'll take yours too!" as he cackled, madly, once more did the Head-butt come around.

"I've got it all down, the plan is complete, now destroy Konoha, the source of my hate, destroy the Uchiha, my family of betrayers, destroy the Kyuubi, destroy everything and awaken the Juubi, bring forth the eye moon plan, and everyone will follow my words!"

It came, once more, the Head-butt, once more, the clash, once more, the attack.

"It's not going to stop…isn't it?" Obito muttered, "Who am I kidding…it's obvious it won't…it's not Tsukuyomi, it's something else. What is it? Izanagi? No, it can't be…it's more lasting than that…what could it be?"

Again, the clash came, swords met with thunder that met with fists.

"I'm tired of this…let my end come…I'll kill Hashirama in the afterlife, and that will do me fine."

As he no longer defended, Izanami's course came to an end, when the man's head rolled out, leaving behind a beheaded Tobi.

*Ichibi*

Stay very still and nobody is going to fling you against a mountain.

That was the best advice his third or fourth personality had told him, and he was very, very, keen on taking it for granted. Especially when the red-haired woman he was so much afraid of had told him that, had he even moved the tail, or a single sand grain, she'd come and fling him against the mountain's side.

The Ichibi was clearly not an idiot. He clearly valued his own life, and reincarnation or not, he didn't want to meet the woman *ever* again on bad terms. So when his nineteenth personality had suggested the optimal course, of obeying the woman's orders until he'd gotten into a Jinchuuriki once more, he had obviously followed that counsel too.

So now he waited, as he saw people passing in front of him, staring at him a bit scared, but he didn't move a single grain of sand, he was a good raccoon after all, a good bloodthirsty raccoon which would rather not be flung against a mountain.

That's when he saw a man with blond-spiked hair and red-stains of blood, that reeked of snakes and blood, and was being repeatedly in the process of being brought back to live by some medic-nin, just to be smacked unconscious by someone of the entourage. Once it was a violet-haired woman, then it was a burly blond and tanned man, then it actually was also a silver-haired woman with green eyes, who just did it because she had been ordered to. Then he saw the red-haired woman with chains waving at him softly, and he stood very, very still, as she moved closer, and said with a nice and gentle smile, while on the back of Gamabunta, together with the toad sage, who was staring at the scene with a kind of amused grin.

"Ichibi-kun, be a good boy and wait here, will you?" as the Ichibi nodded, Kushina smiled and Gamabunta, with a jump, was already out of there, dashing towards Kumogakure to deliver the good news.

Firstly, the battle was over.

Secondly, the Akatsuki was over.

Thirdly, the idiot Naruto, albeit being completely exhausted and without chakra, was alive.

Fourth…the white and red hat was going to swap places quite soon.

At least…that was the intention of a burly tanned man who dreaded the amount of paperwork to justify everything that had happened in that day.

*Kumogakure*

The Nibi was growling, as the chakra suppressing seals, courtesy of a certain Toad sannin, had blocked her and B from using their powers, and had forced the both of them to stay in the apartment while, supposedly, that whore and that white-spikey urchin of a man, together with the giant frog, went to grab Saki.

Then, she hoped, they'd deliver her Otouto back, instead of kidnapping him, or feigning his death, because Kami help them if they did, she wasn't going to sit back any longer like some sort of…cat, playing with threads.

So, when the door opened, she flung up only to be tightly hugged by Saki, who seemed to be sort of really scared.

"What happened, Saki?" Yugito queried, worriedly, "Is Naruto…"

"Uncle is being kidnapped by the big breasted lady!" She wailed, "And the Raikage is fine with it too!"

"WHAT!" it couldn't be that the Raikage had gone mad, and had delivered Naruto directly into the hands of the Konoha's whore? Yugito dashed out of the door, not caring that Saki had continued her sentence, by adding.

"They're moving to the church…Yugito-Auntie? Auntie?"

"Why the church, little niece?" B rapped, raising a puzzled eyebrow.

"Well, they're marrying B-Uncle! She says that since he's still Toruna…"

"Wait…you talking about the Iron Land Lady that's been preparing marriage since the past couple of days?" B queried once more, to be sure about it.

"Yeah uncle! She kidnapped him! He was unconscious and she took him to church, with great-uncle A laughing evilly and clasping his hands!" as she said that, with an utterly worried tone, B sighed, scratching the back of his head, before heading out humming a nice funeral march.

For his bro: which among the two, he actually had yet to decide, but it was all depending on who the Cat's wrath was going to come for first.

*Kumogakure – Next day*

Naruto groaned, opening his eyes, and staring blankly at the sight in front of him. Shizuka was sleeping, snoring in a cute way too, if such a thing was possible, while holding tightly onto his chest, and obviously, both were naked. Strange, since the last thing he recalled was him falling on the ground after back-attacking Minato.

Just what had happened? He was in Kumogakure, that much the window's view gave out to him, but then again, why was he in bed, with Shizuka, and why was he feeling so spent?

Did she just…no, she wouldn't actually *abuse* him? Would it actually be bad, considering who it would have been in doing the *abuse*? He shook those thoughts off, first, he needed to understand what was going on, so, as he slowly let a hand reach his temple, to groan because of his headache, feeling a couple of bumps on his head that he didn't know *how* he had suffered, he realized there was something shiny, and golden, around one of his fingers.

He groaned harder, this time, however, he was in the middle of deciding just *how* they had managed to coerce him, in his knocked out state, to say *yes*…because they *did* ask him the question, didn't they? And who did the marriage with a knocked out groom? Who was such a bastard? And why, for the love of Kami, was there a Kage's vest on the chair next to him?

Just *what* had happened the day before?

A muffled sound of someone waking up distracted him, as he slowly stared into the eyes of Shizuka, who made a sort of grin, before biting gently into his chin, snuggling against it with her nose.

"It's not going to work," Naruto muttered, shaking his head, "I want a detailed list of things that happened while I was out, and please, do tell me you haven't *used* me while I was out cold."

Shizuka sighed, rolling to the side of the bed, and then, with a sort of mused out thought, simply spoke in a slow, and deliberately prone to sleep way.

"Well…first off, I was preparing the church, and everything else, like you told me to, then you arrived knocked out cold, and before they could say no, I grabbed you from the stretcher you were on, and since it also seemed you had suffered a lot of injuries, I thought you immediately needed the loving care of a wife, as a betrothed wasn't going to cut it," she mused, as Naruto's stare was one of *really? They actually bought that bullshit?*, "the Raikage, or ex-Raikage, was actually willing, so much that he actually slipped together with the marriage contract, that he helped you sign, the Raikage's succession list, and thus you are also the new Raikage of Kumogakure, as Naruto though, the marriage is with Toruna, so…I'm actually having an affair with my husband! Oh my!" she giggled, before continuing, cutting short any type of protest from the man, "for the marriage, I actually told Kuro how much you would have liked to have him as the godfather for your clearly soon to be born younglings, and he…"

"…he actually had a talking snake stay in my sleeve and say the *Yes* in my place?" Naruto's eyebrow twitched, he knew that Kuro, upon hearing words like *Younglings* or *Babies* or *Godfather* was already long gone into his own fantasy land, but he had kind of hoped the snake as tall as a mountain would have seen through it, wouldn't he?

"You know him well," Shizuka replied, "then I simply used you as a shield against a really angry Sister-in-law, and that's why you probably have some bruises, still, and…well…then she went on to attack the ex-Raikage, and stormed out of the church pursuing the man, by the way, I got us photos and video-recordings of the event! So even if you got knocked out, and said only a tiny *hissing* yes in the middle, it was all worth it!"

"…you know what, if this is a joke, it's a really bad one, but I'm afraid it isn't, so I'll just live with the fact I did promise to marry you, as Toruna of the snakes, when I got back, but please, next time you grab a guy and want to marry him, do that when he's awake."

"Oh but you know…there's this sort of…*law* in the Iron Lands…" a twitch on Naruto's eyebrow, who had actually memorized all the laws pertaining the most neutral of lands, "if a married woman is caught having an affair with someone who isn't her husband, like for example, the Raikage Naruto, the two Samurai challenge each other to a duel of honor, and the winner gets the prize…"

"You actually *did* stuff with me? Knocked out and all?" now Naruto didn't know wherever to marry the cunning woman actually, or be very afraid of ever making her pissed...did she plan all that in two days?

"Oh no, but you know, what we were doing under the bed sheets might be misinterpreted," as she made a perfect smile to the man, Naruto groaned.

"So, why did you actually do that? We had a deal you wouldn't try to…oh wait…you want some insurance I won't rat this out to Mifune, right?"

"Good man! You're really a smart one too!" as she chuckled onto that, the snake sage got out of the bed, realizing he actually had his boxer still on, and as he slowly donned the Kage's robes, no use trying to give them back to A, if he knew half of what his father had planned on doing, he'd probably already be taking a vacation somewhere, maybe with Samui.

"Still…you do remember I don't take kindly to having deals broken, do you?" Naruto hissed, eying the woman with a cold stare.

"Don't worry…though…what if I actually *do* manage to get you to love me?" at that question, the man stopped for a moment, mulling over the thought.

"You can try, but first I need to do something, it will take some time…but then, everything should be settled…at least, I hope," and with those words, the new Godaime Raikage walked out of his apartment, he had a job to do…and he was just about to add a good chunk of land to Kumogakure too.

*Epilogue*

His eyes, blue and clear, without tomoes, without slits, stared at those of the Kyuubi, who was now outside, in the middle of Oto's land.

The giant beast of chakra stood there, not moving even a single of its paws, as far more than she could count, there were chains wrapped around the entirety of her body, constricting her movements after having granted her freedom, albeit fleeting, and she now knew there was no way out of it, well, who was she to keep it up? The Kyuubi, that was who she was, and even if her tails could clash down mountains, and her claws could tear apart forests, she was being pinned down by chakra chains, Mokuton, the blasted first Hokage's technique, and even the Rinnegan. Heck, all that missed right there and then was the damn Sharingan from someone of the Uchiha clan, that she couldn't thus take, just like she had taken the eyes given to Naruto, hoping to turn him blind and kill him on the spot, instead, the man had known that from the very beginning, actually popping them out of his sockets by himself, and replacing them with two other one on the run.

On the damn run the man had done to himself a delicate operation and had come out fine enough, even better, he had actually popped into his empty sockets the Rinnegan. Yet, there was a feeling of having already been in that scene, but he couldn't, for the love of himself, understand why. Was it the man's Rinnegan? Was it the man's energy that seemed to be filled with the aura of some of the Bijuus before her? Was it the fact that he bore no village symbol, but the Kanji for snake on his forehead? Was it the fact that his white mantle, flapping on his back, recalled to her that of someone else?

His blond spiked hair stood tall, as, with a final movement, the seals on the man's chest shone brightly, and then, the Kyuubi was no more.

The One tail, Shukaku, welcomed the new guest into *Naruto's seal for more than one Bijuu*.

"Well, Kyuubi-chan! You actually got caught! He's a nice host, you know? Remembers me of our father, the sage of the…"

"SO THAT'S WHAT IT WAS!" the Kyuubi snarled, face-palming, "I did feel him to be a familiar sensation…but really, a descendant of the sage of the six paths? And…is he on the destruction side, please, I recall he was destruction side clearly, last time."

"Well…a little bit of both," Son spoke, hanging from a tree, "you should see how he put Kumogakure and Hebigakure as the first hidden villages, even outsourcing Konoha."

"Good, I hated that village…Hebigakure?" the Kyuubi spoke, perplexed.

"Yeah, he placed a snake-Kage on it, and actually it's the second strongest village out there, it's more of a colony of sort of Kumogakure, but it's clearly there," the lucky Seven spoke, flying down to meet the Kyuubi, who was puzzled, as she groaned.

"Damn, that boy's touching the seal of the girl made me miss a lot of things! Kami be damned!"

*Outside*

Naruto sighed, turning his Rinnegan gaze to the sight of the battlefield he had been in.

He had taken care of bringing the Kyuubi out in an area of relatively flat land, yet the small scuffle had managed to damage enough of the land to scar it for a while. He had gone there alone, and alone he had fought. He had been hailed as the strongest Ninja ever alive, as the reincarnation of the sage of the six paths, as the Jinchuuriki of the tailed beasts.

Iwagakure had bowed to his might, and stopped fighting to regain their bijuus, while Suna and Konoha had kept tightly into their alliances with Kumogakure and Hebigakure, the village he had founded, thanks to the help from Sai in killing off many of the still loyal to Orochimaru puppets. Amegakure had accepted the truth that war was no longer going to happen, as long as they accepted the fact that there was going to be an alliance.

Peace came, at last, among the big and the small villages. There, in that now even more desolated flatland, Naruto turned his gaze to the sun setting, not holding back a grin, as the clone that had just then dispersed told him of Saki's full-out recovery, though Yugao and Hayate were going to have a chat with him about *having their daughter risk a really dangerous operation only for a stupid whim of a promise*.

They'd certainly be surprised at his eyes, the result of him taking them from Nagato, or at his right hand, that had the slightest semblance of wooden aspect on it, since the rinnegan had been socketed, he had realized that the face, the face of the first Hokage had been slowly receding inside of him.

Slowly, he couldn't help but smirk.

Nothing could stop him now.

Nothing could defeat him now.

Nothing could take him by surprise now.

Everything followed his whims and his desires.

Everything moved towards the path he had wished for it to be.

His enemies lay dead at his feet.

His strength was unrivalled: he was truly worthy of being called a God.

The crying kid of the beginning had evolved, battered by the events, forged by the battles, the blood, the fights, mercy and justice, revenge and power, neither black or white, as the only thing that mattered to him, in that precise moment, was that he had done all he had to, and that he could now head back home, to his home, and finally start looking forward.

…

"He wasn't optimistic, however. He knew battles would be waged still, dissidents would rise, anarchists would attempt at his life, he knew peace would be but the name for absence of war, but the revolution was coming, brought forth by the ever growing lines of his men, his soldiers, his friends, his family, as Naruto turned to leave, he muttered something that was carried on by the wind, since after all, who wouldn't want to end a story by having the words about how *He wanted Ramen* be etched forever in the mind of the reader, right?"

"Otou-san! That's not how you should end a story!" the girl pouted, having taken the cute pout from her mother.

"And how should I have ended it, huh?" the man replied.

"Duh! With an epic battle and be done with it! That's how epic stories end! Final clashes, destruction, raining apocalypse! Things like those! Not *I want Ramen!*" the girl said as a matter of fact, as the man simply tucked her under the bed sheets.

"Yeah, yeah, now off to bed you go, tomorrow you've got a hard day ahead of you, first day at shinobi school heh? You grow up so fast…I'm proud of you," as the man said that with a smile, he ruffled the girl's dark raven hair.

"Otou-san, if you ruffle my hair it's going to be a mess tomorrow!" the girl pouted, her green eyes staring at her father's ring-shaped ones, who simply shrugged it off, while moving to close the girl's night light, before closing the door behind him with a chuckle.

"You told her that story again?" the woman that spoke softly, behind him, was in a light purple nightgown, shaking her head with a sigh, "You know she's going to wake up in the middle of the night, claiming she saw the woman under the bed, right?"

"Oh well…better the woman than the scary old samurai that nearly beheaded her father for having faked his death, absorbed more than one rampaging Bijuu, and that was then forced to avoid an ultra-dangerous conflict to actually remarry her mother," as the man grinned, Shizuka pouted.

"I was half-way through Tanzaku town's casinos, when they came to get me, you *could* have hidden better, you know!" she snapped playfully, giving him a slight punch on the shoulder.

"I didn't think Mifune would actually come to meet the new Raikage-me without announcing his presence, he caught me eating ramen at Ichiraku's stall, you know?"

"Yeah, holding him at bay with wind-enhanced chopsticks became a widespread legend, that did help you with the rogue swordsmen of the mist though," Shizuka replied, letting her head rest on her husband's shoulder.

"What did I know they wanted to take up the challenge of defeating me? That did help with Kiri though: to get the swords back they accepted an alliance without batting an eyelid and their Kage was even a bit…expansive?"

"If that whore had touched you any longer I'd have beheaded her…for political reasons, obviously," Shizuka replied, as she slowly kissed goodbye to her husband, who was headed for his nightly *routine*, namely, the enormous stack of paperwork that came with having to take care of one village, openly, and another one, in secret.

Yoru enjoyed being a Kage, for Kami's sake, but he was more prone to accepting invitations to go on Sake drinking contests with Gamabunta and Kuro, than actually doing any paperwork.

He chuckled, thinking about how Karin was faring, or Tayuya, for what it mattered. The two ex-Otogakure shinobis had given up on being ninjas, after seeing how there was no way they'd make a living out of it any longer, not being hired since they had horrible pasts, he'd extended a hand, but only once, and had made it clear it wouldn't have happened ever again.

Karin was sort of related, being an Uzumaki, and Tayuya simply was lucky enough the position required two people, and there *was* a lack of Genjutsu users in Hebigakure. They had become the gate guardians of Hebigakure, highly important spot, something that really made them proud to serve…at least, it was the obvious result. Karin was a sensor and Tayuya could easily break Genjutsu, nobody had been able to slip through unnoticed since then.

Since Kumo had helped in rebuilding Konoha helped by Suna, and in actually building Hebigakure, they had been on the protector and helper role for a good while, and tales had spread far and wide of the man who was the Godaime Raikage, the Sage of the six paths reborn, the bringer of peace.

All good publicity, until you found out that some people strived in chaos and warfare.

Mercenary units, brigands, armies of evildoers and even satanic cultists had risen from the depths of the underworld, sometimes literally, providing more than enough missions for the ninjas, that even in peace, there was work to do.

As he finally reached his office, staring at the paperwork in front of him, he couldn't help but stare at the *box* that had once been the pride and joy of A, and that now was his: the container of all children drawings ever done, and all awards, tests, prizes, anything. As it had been with him, so it was now with his daughter, it was actually a subtle mental trick to convince a Kage to actually *do* the paperwork, instead of running for one's own dear life...and it worked.

"Mito's going to be a looker like her mother when she grows up," Naruto muttered, "I'll have to fend her suitors off, I suppose," and with that, he turned to his work: the day was too busy spent fawning over his daughter and his wife, so he only had the night to take care of it, not that it bothered him, clones did a pretty good job in lessening it, albeit every now and then some did try to increase the amount of *Torture sets* bought for Anko-Oneechan's T&I department, or for Yugito-Oneechan's *Cat-Nin* division…when she had brought that up, Naruto wasn't even sure she was serious, until Tora, fully decked with a Kumo headband, had actually the guts to try and scratch him, hissing furiously...well, Kuro had been fine with giving a chance to his kindred spirit…so everything was fine on that regard…

Speaking of which, he had yet to reply to the letter from Yakumo-chan, who had been his *pen-friend* for a while, claiming how she was so close to getting Lee to marry her, while Sakura, on the other hand, had found a keen interest in becoming the next female Hokage, as soon as Tsunade actually left the spot.

Jiraiya was still alive, and, if indications of peeping tom's reports were any warning, he was going to come around pretty soon, probably to see Mito's first day at school…probably. Five minutes later, and the paperwork was done thanks to clone power. He'd let Mabui grab it in the morning, while he went for his usual late night snack, being pretty sure that he'd find the stall, now once more a restaurant, and even better, one of many of the Ichiraku's chain of Ramen stalls, restaurant, and products, but he had his reserved seat, after all, and nobody was going to take it from him, so, as he sat there, slurping down his usual pork ramen, served from a still bright awake Ayame, who was hitting things off with one of his Kumogakure shinobis, but he'd be damned if he could find out which one…just wanted to make a brotherly talk with him, but he was either hiding very well, or he knew when he wasn't looking out for him to make his appearance. C took his nightly leave from the stall, he had, after all, the night shift, and thus he was forced to stay late in the hospital, after saluting Naruto, and as he headed away, the Raikage could feel something slipping out from his grasp…if only he could understand *what*.

"Hey, Raikage-sama," Ayame teased the man, knowing full well he'd grumble something about *not being formal*, "You know Darui-san? Amaru is already pregnant again, and it's going to be a boy this time," Naruto chuckled at the thought, maybe the white-haired shinobi would get a swordsman this time, instead of a future medic-nin to be.

"Didn't know that, Ayame-baachan," as he said that, to tease back at the formal tone used prior, the woman's forehead bulged a tick mark, before shaking her head, and pouting back.

"Then no more ramen for you," as Naruto tried once more his puppy eyes, only for them to fail miserably, being him now far past his prime age, Ayame sighed.

"B's got, once more, first Enka-Rap prize. Just why did you have to go and institute that stuff…I can't stand the girls coming around to talk about it: makes me mad hearing that noise! You should be considered the most evil person in the world, you know?"

"Hey, I clean my hands off the deal: I wasn't the one who signed that paperwork!" Naruto replied, raising his hands in a sort of *I surrender* sign, "It was Epsilon, and he did chuckle something about it being *A good instrument of torture for the unworthy masses of enemies*, or something along those lines."

"How's Katsumi-chan, by the way?" Ayame queried, as Naruto sighed, rolling his eyes.

"They actually made her a Toad Sage, what the guy was smoking, I don't know…now I've got Hakuja whining every five minutes that my, and I quote *Genealogical tree of Toad Humpers would need at least nine hundred generations of snake sages to clean that black stain off* which is basically his way of saying he'd be fine with teaching Mito how to become a snake sage, when the time comes," Naruto chuckled, the giant white snake would never, ever, admit it, but he had a soft spot for green eyes staring at him with a cute pout.

"Is…well, Kushina-san alright?" Ayame queried, still unsure wherever it was an okay argument, or not yet.

"I suppose she is, next time there's a Kage's meeting, Katsumi said she was going to come as the Hokage's bodyguard together with her, they even planned a nice family dinner," making Naruto shudder, "I just can't fathom the chaos Mito will do this time."

"Aw, she's just a lively child," Ayame replied with a chuckle.

"So lively that food usually ends in the entire restaurant rather than in her mouth, or so lively that a squirrel on caffeine seems a tortoise?" Naruto rhetorically questioned, before shrugging.

"Hatake-san and Rin-san came over a couple of weeks above, they were sight-seeing around the elemental countries, together with their boy," as another pork ramen bowl disappeared within Naruto's fangs, there was no way somebody would keep him from that, and the Hokage hat actually guaranteed he could get away with force, if need to be, Naruto nodded back.

"Yeah, I had to sign the entirety of the Hiss, Hisses and Hissing Collections of his wife, my hand still hurt afterwards," at that, Ayame sported a nervous tick.

"And yet you can't seem to find the time to do the same with my collections, huh?"

"On my defense, I'm usually having too much of a cramped hand," the man replied, nodding to himself.

"But you hold the chopsticks just fine…fine, never mind…let me guess what you want now…"

"I want more Ramen, obviously," Naruto replied with a grin.

_The End_.

**Author's notes**

**And this is the end!**

**The reason it ended was because I was pretty sure the exponential growth would soon bore out the life of my readers, and I was never one for God-like Narutos, (though in this fic, it pretty much happened towards the end, heck, just making Naruto *smart* makes him strong…maybe that's why Kishimoto portrays him like a baboon on caffeine for most of his air-time), and also because all that had to be said and done was done. **

**Fun facts:**

**Yes, Naruto didn't learn Izanagi, but Izanami, directly from Itachi, and Sasuke should have been Naruto's support if the battle at the pass failed, but instead, we all know what he did and how it ended.**

**Itachi never knew the truth, instead poor Minato took all the blame, thus everyone lived happily ever after, and since Itachi *was* the last Uchiha, he found himself annoyed with a fan club of girlish women, until Hana Inuzuka came his way, and that got him hooked and sunk.**

**Minato died obviously believing he was the good guy.**

**The Fourth Raikage is still on a long term vacation with his assistant, now probably wife, last sighting have him on a tropical island, where every now and then a space-time jutsu shows pictures of two green clad in spandex men looking towards the Horizon. One time he was sure even his son was there, clad in a green spandex Hokage Robe, doing the same thing.**

**There was no Edo Tensei, because with Orochimaru's death and his remains destroyed, Kabuto went to Ryuchi cave and was ambushed before being able to do anything about it. **

**Anko-chan obviously had her curse mark removed.**

**Gaara and Matsuri hit it off, especially when the latter promised to plant swords to the side of anyone using chains or having red-hair.**

**Kankuro revealed his transvestite nature on…*He did not, he claims to be completely straight, and the fact he's menacing me with a puppet means nothing to make the claim forced*.**

**Temari found herself a … *Nice caring boyfriend that certainly is not being forced by her pushy nature, the author has not been menaced by a fan to carry out this statement*.**

**All the unaccounted Bijuus ended up inside of Naruto, who obviously silenced them from speaking in his mind…too much noise, otherwise.**

**I did say you would see Tora eventually, didn't I? **

**Kyuubi did try to backstab Naruto once more…a pity he was more than prepared: truly frightening, a successful Orochimaru.**

**Haku and Zabuza were lost in the mists of the Hidden Mists…when they did came out, they actually were three, but since nobody wanted to pick a bone with one of the reinstated Swordsman of the mist, nobody said anything.**

**These are the Author's notes, thus if you actually don't like a pairing that was barely told about *here* then don't worry, it's your choice, author's notes are purely subjective and suggestive, and this being the final ones for this story, I thought about giving you something to laugh upon the sad news that it was the last chapter.**

**I thank once more everyone that has read, reviewed, favorited, sent me a pm, or in any way took a moment of his time to read/write about/pm about this story. Thanks guys, I appreciated it.**

**Now I'm sure the following lines are going to make you foam from your mouth, but as you know, *dread is the fear of the unknown*…so…*runs for his life*.**

_*Somewhere else entirely*_

"_Di..Did I… Hear…Mi…Mito-chan?" __The neck that had sprouted roots, and the head that had been cold for so long, slowly touched one another...it was a slow process...but something was bound to happen, eventually... When, that was the question…_

_*The Real End?*_


End file.
